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THE  NEW  YOUNG  FOLKS'  CYCLOPAEDIA  OF 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS 


Being  Volume  III  of 


CHAMPLIN'S  YOUNG  FOLKS'  CYCLOPEDIAS,  edited 
by  John  D.  Champlin,  Jr.,  and  Arthur  Bostwick,  i2mo, 
831  pp.,  $2.50. 


The  Nation  :  ' '  Certainly  no 
such  collection  has  ever  appeared 
before.  .  .  A  careful  examination 
has  failed  to  reveal  any  inaccu- 
racies. .  .  The  records  »f  athletic 
contests  are  brought  down  to  the 
present  year.  .  .  The  illustrations 
are  numerous,  and,  besides  eluci- 
dating the  text,  add  not  a  little  to 
the  attractiveness  of  the  volume." 

Outing:  "A  perfect  mine.  .  . 
From  the  game  of  A  B  C  to 
the  making  of  a  zoetrope  nothing 
seems  omitted  which  can  amuse 
and  instruct  in  the  parlor  or  the 
playground." 

N.  Y.  Tribune:  "A  mine  of 
joy.  .  .  A  positive  treasure  to  the 
game-loving  boy  and  girl.  One 
of  the  best  features  of  the  book  is 
the  careful  presentation,  for  refer 
ence,  of  official  rules  and  records." 

Chicago  Inter-Ocean  :  "  A  game 
to  be  interesting  must  be  played 
according  to  fixed  rules.  These 
are  often  in  dispute  and  it  is  well 
to  have  authority  for  their  correct 
interpretation.  .  .  The  instruc- 
tions are  so  clear  and  concise  as 
to  be  easily  understood.  .  .Moth- 
ers and  fathers  will  find  much  of 
value  and  interest  in  the  pages." 

Congregationalist :  ' '  Although 
we  have  owned  two  or  three  such 
books,  and  have  examined  several 
others,  we  consider  this  as  the 
most  satisfactory  of  which  we  are 
aware." 

The  Epoch:  "Mr.  Champlin 
unites  with  elaborate  training  and 
wide  experience  a  natural  ability 
for  his  work  which  amounts   to 


genius,  and  a  sympathy  with  boys 
which  has  given  him  peculiar 
success  in  his  efforts  in  their  be- 
half. .  .  Many  who  understand . 
games  and  sports  can  explain  them 
only  by  appealing  to  the  eye.  The 
capacity  to  make  them  clear  in 
writing  is  rare;  and  for  this  reason 
many  so-called  books  of  sports  are 
failures.  .  .  It  is  a  purely  American 
book,  even  the  English  games,  as 
the  editor  announces  in  the  pref- 
ace, being  described  as  played  in 
this  country.  Adults  will  find  it 
as  valuable  as  the  young  people, 
since  it  includes,  word  for  word, 
the  official  rules  of  athletic  sports 
and  standard  games  and  the  offi- 
cial records  of  athletic  meets  and 
events.  To  insure  accuracy,  such 
articles  as  the  editors  deemed 
necessary  have  been  submitted  to 
the  revision  of  competent  experts. 
The  illustrations  are  numerous 
and  illuminative.  For  mothers 
taking  their  children  into  the 
country,  where  the  absence  of 
their  regular  school  duties  is  soon 
painfully  shown,  especially  on 
rainy  days,  by  their  cry  of  '  What 
shall  we  do?'  and  for  those  de- 
siring to  give  children's  parties, 
as  well  as  for  the  needs  of  every 
day  among  a  family  of  growing 
children,  this  book  is  simply  in- 
valuable. The  young  people 
themselves  will  appreciate  it  fully. 
A  boy  of  fourteen,  who  received 
many  valuable  presents  on  Christ- 
mas Day,  has  been  overheard  to 
tell  several  people,  '  The  very 
nicest  thing  I  had  was  Mr.  Cham 
plin's  Cyclopaedia  of  Games  ana 
Sports.' " 


CHA  MP  LIN'S  C  YCL  OPsEDIA  S. — Continued. 


Toronto  Week  :  "  Would  prove 
a  useful  book  of  reference  in  the 
libraries  of  adults  as  well  as  of 
juveniles." 

The  Art  Amateur :  "  An  En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica  for  young- 
sters, a  book  to  last  not  one  sea- 
son alone  but  through  all  the 
periods  of  childhood  to  adoles- 
cence. .  .  So  comprehensive  that 
any  sport  not  found  herein  is 
probably  a  game  not  worth  the 
candle." 

Pittsburg  Chronicle-Telegraph : 
"  Of  equal  value  to  many  adults. 
.  .  Includes  the  official  rules  of 
all  athletic  sports  .  .  and  official 
records  of  meets  and  events,  .  . 
all  verified  by  special  experts." 

Richmond  Dispatch  :  "  Deeply 
interesting  to  young  people,  and 
old  people  too,  for  that  matter." 

Boston  Journal:  "A  family 
possessing  it  .  .  will  never  be  at 
loss  for  amusement." 

Providence  Journal :  "  Perfect 
treasure. " 


Literary  World  :  "  Admirable. 
.  .  Destined  to  a  wide  sale.  .  . 
Would  be  a  treasure  in  every 
household  that  believes  in  games 
or  sports  of  any  sort." 

Philadelphia  Ledger :  "  Admi- 
rable. " 

The  Book  Buyer  :  "  The  boob 
swarms  with  illustrations  of  every 
grade  that  render  clear  descrip- 
tions of  things  and  processes  that 
would  else  remain  somewhat 
vague." 

The  Independent :  "  Should 
form  a  part  of  every  juvenile 
library,  whether  public  or  private." 

Boston  Post  :  "  No  better  book 
can  be  found  as  a  gift  for  a  healthy 
boy." 

Chicago  Advance  :  "A  bonanza 
to  wide-awake  boys  and  girls." 

Boston  Transcript :  "  Should  find 
a  welcome  in  every  household 
where  there  are  growing  children. 
.  .  We  most  heartily  commend 
it." 


Vol.   I.  COMMON  THINGS.    69oPP.  $2.5o. 
Vol.  II.  PERSONS  AND  PLACES.    956PP.  $2.5o. 

By  JOHN  D.  CHAMPLIN,  Jr., 

Late  Associate  Editor  of  the  American  Cyclopaedia. 


From  a  Report  of  the  Connecticut 
Board  of  Education:  "  '  The  Young 
Folks'  Cyclopaedia'  should  be  in 
every  juvenile  library." 

The  Independent:  "The  book 
will  be  as  valuable  as  a  small  li- 
brary to  any  young  person." 

Cincinnati  Commercial :  "Fam- 
ilies and  students  who  cannot 
afford  the  expensive  set  of  en- 
cyclopaedias will  find  in  this  a 
most  excellent  substitute  in  many 
things." 

The  Nation:  "We  know  copies 
of  the  work  to  which  their  younj 


ation  upon  every  theme  about 
which  they  have  questions  to  ask. 
More  than  this,  we  know  that 
some  of  these  copies  are  read 
daily  as  well  as  consulted,  that 
their  owners  turn  the  leaves  as 
they  might  those  of  a  fairy-book." 
St.  Nicholas  :  ' '  All  our  boys 
and  girJs  who  like  to  ask  questions 
will  be  glad  to  hear  of  '  The 
Young  Folks'  Cyclopaedia. '  How 
many  questions  you  young  folks 
ask  of  older  ones  every  day! 
Now,  if  you  have  one  of  these 
cyclopaedias,  instead  of  asking 
questions,  you  look  in  your  book 
and  there  is  your  answer" 


owners  turn  instantly  for  inform- 

HENRY  HOLT  &  CO.,  Publishers,  New  York. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/youngfolkshistorycham 


U.  S.  PENNANT. 


U.  S.  REVENUE  PENNANT 


ARMS  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


REVENUE  JACK. 


REVENUE  FLAG 


UNION  JACK. 


ARMS   AND   FLAGS   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


YOUNG    FOLK'S    HISTORY 


OF    THE 


WAR  FOR  THE  UNION 


JOHN  D.  CHAMPLIN,  Jr. 

Editor  of  the  Young  Folks'  Cyclopaedias,  late  Associate  Editor  of  the 
American  Cyclopedia. 


COPIOUSLY    ILLUSTRATED 


NEW    YORK 
HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY 

1889. 


Copyright,  1881, 

BY 

HENRY  HOLT  &  CO. 


PREFACE. 


THE  writer  has  endeavored  to  give,  in  the  following  pages, 
an  unprejudiced  and  impartial  account  of  our  great  Civil 
War.  The  difficulty  of  such  a  task  can  scarcely  be  appreciated 
by  one  who  has  not  himself  made  the  attempt.  The  echoes  of 
the  contest  have  scarcely  yet  died  away,  and  the  bitter  feelings 
born  of  it  are  still  apt  to  warp  the  judgment  and  to  unfit  men 
of  either  part  of  our  country  to  estimate  calmly  the  motives 
and  acts  of  their  opponents.  Yet  he  who  would  write  a  truth- 
ful history  of  those  times  must  necessarily  divest  himself  of 
partisanship  and  lift  himself  above  the  plane  of  local  prejudice. 
If  the  writer  has  failed  to  do  this,  it  is  not  because  he  has  not 
made  an  honest  effort  to  weigh  carefully  the  facts  as  narrated 
by  both  Northern  and  Southern  writers,  and  to  give  each  side 
its  just  dues. 

As  the  work  is  intended  primarily  for  young  folks,  the 
author  has  aimed  to  give,  in  chronological  order,  a  plain  and 
concise  account  of  the  most  striking  events  of  the  war,  enlivened 
by  sketches  of  the  prominent  men  engaged  in  it,  and  by  inci- 
dents and  anecdotes  illustrative  of  it.  Though  some  of  the  \ 
stories  are  possibly  apocryphal,  many  of  the  characteristic  ones 
which  serve  to  throw  light  upon  the  period  and  its  events  have 
been  retained  without  any  attempt  to  prove  their  truth  or  l 
falsity.  The  writer  has  consulted  the  best  available  sources, 
and  it  is  believed  that  the  narrative  is  as  nearly  correct  in  its 
details  as  any  previous  work.  The  language  used  is  simple, 
adapted  to  the  understanding  of  the  young,  and  technical  words 
and  expressions,  when  unavoidably  used,  are  fully  explained. 

The  illustrations  are  intended  to  be  equally  trustworthy, 
having  been  selected  not  for  mere  picturesqueness,  but  for  their 
value  in  elucidating  the  text.  The  larger  part  of  them  were 
drawn  at  the  time  and  from  the  objects  which  they  represent. 


V 


iv  PREFACE. 

Maps  of  the  principal  battles  and  sieges  are  introduced  wher- 
ever they  are  needed  to  make  the  narrative  clearer  and  more 
intelligible.  The  flags  of  the  Union  and  the  several  State  and 
Confederate  ensigns  used  in  the  war  are  shown  in  the  two 
colored  plates,  and  the  principal  songs  which  grew  out  of  the 
struggle,  with  a  brief  account  of  their  origin,  are  given  in  the 
Appendix. 

With  the  hope  that  this  volume  may  be  acceptable  to  those 
who  participated  in  the  contest,  and  may  be  deemed  worthy  to 
be  put  into  the  hands  of  their  children  as  a  trustworthy  picture 
of  the  events  in  which  they  took  a  part,  the  author  presents  his 
work  to  the  public  with  the  consciousness  that  if  it  is  not 
quite  up  to  his  own  ideal,  it  is  not  because  lie  has  not  labored 
earnestly  to  make  it  so. 

J.  D.  0.,  Jr. 

New  York,  October,  1881. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  I. — Early  Differences. 

The  Thirteen  Colonies.— Differences  between  Northern  and  Southern  Colonies.— 
Slavery.— The  Confederation  of  the  Colonies.— One  Nation  To-day  and  Thir- 
teen To-morrow.— The  Constitution  and  the  Union.— Federalists  and  Democratic- 
Republicans.— Alexander  Hamilton.— Thomas  Jefferson.— Washington  a  Peace- 
maker.—France  or  England.— A  Bitter  Struggle.— Success  of  the  Federal- 
ists.—Millions  for  Defence,  not  One  Cent  for  Tribute.— Alien  and  Sedition 
Laws.— State  Rights.— The  Virginia  and  the  Kentucky  Resolutions.— War  with 
England.— The  Hartford  Convention.— Slave  States  and  Free  States.— The  Mis- 
souri Compromise.— The  Democratic  Party.— Free  Trade  or  Protection.— John 
C.  Calhoun.— Nullification.— Webster  and  Hayne.— Andrew  Jackson.— By  the 
Eternal,  the  Union  shall  be  Preserved.— The  Compromise  Tariff. Page     1 

Chapter  II. — Slavery. 

Slavery  and  Emancipation.— John  Randolph's  Opinion.— Benjamin  Lundy.— William 
Lloyd  Garrison.— The  Anti-Slavery  Society.— The  Abolitionists.— Change  of 
Opinion  in  the  South.— Texas.— The  Whig  Party.— The  Liberty  Party.— War 
with  Mexico.— The  Wilmot  Proviso.— Slave  States  and  Free  States.— The  Free- 
Soil  Party.— Henry  Clay  and  the  Compromises  of  1850.— The  Fugitive  Slave 
Law.— Personal  Liberty  Laws.— The  Kansas  and  Nebraska  Bill.— Squatter 
Sovereignty.— Kansas  a  Battle-ground.— Assault  upon  Senator  Sumner.— The 
Republican  Party.— The  Dred  Scott  Case.— Filibustering  Expeditions.— John 
Brown's  Raid.— Capture  of  Harper's  Ferry.— John  Brown's  Execution.— His  Soul 
is  Marching  on rf 17 

Chapter  III. — Secession. 

Division  of  the  Democratic  Party.— Stephen  A.  Douglas.— John  C.  Breckinridge.— 
Election  of  Lincoln.— The  News  in  South  Carolina.— President  Buchanan.— The 
Crittenden  Compromise.— Secession  of  South  Carolina.— Scenes  in  Charleston. 
—The  Tomb  of  Calhoun.— Secession  Bonnets.— Foreign  News.— Forts  Moultrie 
and  Sumter.— Major  Anderson.— Removal  to  Sumter.— Raising  the  Flag.— United 
States  Buildings  Seized,— Major  Anderson  and  State  Rights.— The  Star  of  the 
West.— Secession  of  other  States.— John  A.  Dix  and  the  Flag.— The  Confederate 
States.— Jefferson  Davis.— Alexander  H.  Stephens.— The  Peace  Congress.— 
Twiggs's  Surrender.— Fort  Pickens  Saved 32 

Chapter  IV. — Sumter. 

Inauguration  of  Lincoln.— His  Early  Life.— Lincoln  and  Douglas.— Peace  or  War  ?— 
The  Cabinet.— The  Stars  and  Bars.— The  Confederate  Commissioners.— Secretary 
Blair's  Opinion.— Secretary  Seward  and  the  Wayward  States.— Captain  Fox.— 
The  Attempt  to  Provision  Sumter.— General  Beauregard.— The  First  Shot 
against  Sumter.— The  Civil  War  Begun.— Anderson  and  his  Men.— The  Barracks 
on  Fire.— Making  Cartridges.— Knocked  Down  Temporarily.— Flames  and  Smoke. 
—The  Flag  Hit,— The  Surrender.— Salute  to  the  Flag.— Yankee  Doodle 50 


Vi  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  V. — Uprising  of  the  North. 

Rejoicing  ra  the  South.— Washington'  Threatened.— Lincoln  Calls  for  Troops.— 
Enthusiasm  in  the  North. — 75,000  Coffins  Wanted. — Secession  of  Virginia.— Help 
for  Washington.— Massachusetts  Troops  Mobbed  in  Baltimore.— Washington  in 
a  State  of  Siege.— The  New  York  Seventh  and  the  Massachusetts  Eighth.— Ben. 
Butler.— Old  Ironsides.— Railway  Repairing.— Room  Enough  to  Bury  Seventy- 
five  Thousand. — I  must  have  Troops.— Baltimore  Overawed.— Harper's  Ferry- 
Burned. — Destruction  of  the  Gosport  Navy  Yard. — The  Blockade  Proclaimed. — 
Confederate  Privateers.— North  Carolina  Secedes —More  Volunteers  Wanted. 
—Capture  of  Camp  Jackson,  St.  Louis.— Union  Feeling  ln  Kentucky 63 

Chapter  VI. — March  lnto  Virginia. 

Confederate  Congress  at  Montgomery.— King  Cotton.— Removal  to  Richmond.— 
Manassas  Junction.— Washington  a  Camp. — Secessionists  in  Washington. — Seces- 
sion Lady's  Costume.— A  Heavy  Petticoat.— Mary's  Caps.— Buttons  for  Lunch. — 
Brave  Miss  Webster.— A  Suspicious  Funeral.— A  Kite  with  a  Valuable  Tail.— 
The  Union  Troops  in  Virginia.— Arlington  Heights.— Fort-Building.— Death  of 
Ellsworth. — Fortress  Monroe. — Contrabands.— Little  Bethel.— Big  Bethel.— 
Death  of  Theodore  Winthrop.— Lieutenant  Greble.— McClellan  in  Western- 
Virginia.  — Philippl— Rich  Mountain.— Death  of  General  Garnett.— Patterson 
Crosses  the  Potomac— Patterson  and  Johnston 77 


Chapter  VII. — Bull  Run. 

Ftve  Hundred  Thousand  more  Volunteers.— General  McDowell.— On  to  Richmond.— 
The  March  Begun.— Beauregard's  Position.— Battle  of  Bull  Run.— Stonewall 
Jackson.— Johnston  aids  Beauregard.— Death  of  General  Bee.— Mrs.  Henry's 
House.— A  Disgusted  Irishman.— The  Stars  and  Stripes  or  the  Stars  and  Bars.— 
Kirby  Smith  and  Early  to  the  Rescue.— The  Union  Rout.— Davis  Visits  the 
Battle-Ground.— The  Cextreville  Picnic— Confederate  Exaggerations.— A  Long 
Retreat.— Den  I  Got  Off.— Confederate  Hopes.— The  North  Prepares  for  War  in 
Earnest.— McClellan  in  Command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potosiac— The  Bull  Run 
Monument 92 


Chapter  VIII. — Boonyille. — Wilson's  Creek. 

Military  Importance  of  Cairo.— Bird's  Point.— Lyon  in  Command  in  Missouri- 
Governor  Jackson  Calls  for  Volunteers  against  the  Union.— Battle  of  Boon- 
yille.—Fight  near  Carthage.— Franz  Sigel's  Retreat.— Fremont  in  Command  in 
the  West.— Ben  McCulloch.— Battle  at  Dug  Spring.—  Wilson's  Creek.— The 
Confederates  Surprised.— A  False  Flag.— Where  is  Sigel  '—Death  of  Lyon.— 
Retreat  to  Sprlngfield.— Story  of  Eddy,  the  Drummer-Boy 104 


Chapter  IX. — Lexington. — Belmont. 

General  Bishop  Polk.— Fremont's  Proclamation.— A  Politic  Contraband.— Price 
Attacks  Lexington.— Mulligan's  Brave  Defence.— Precious  Water.— Surrender 
of  Lexington.— No  Ammunition  left.— General  Pillow  at  New  Madrid.— The  Con- 
federates Seize  Columbus.— Island  Number  Ten.— Zollicoffer  and  Buckner  In- 
vade Kentucky.— Confederate  Camp  at  Bowling  Green.— Fremont  Marches  to 
Springfield.— Zagonyi's  Charge.— Major  White's  adventure.— Fremont  Super- 
seded.—General  Halleck  in  Command  in  Missouri. — Sterling  Price  and  his  Men.— 
Jeff.  Thompson.— General  Grant  at  Cairo.— Battle  of  Belmont.— General  Cheat- 
ham's Escape 113 


CONTENTS.  yji 

Chapter  X. — Western  Virginia. 

General  Rosecrans  in  West  Virginia.— Robert  E.  Lee.— Battle  of  Carnifex  Ferry. 
—Escape  of  Floyd.— Reynolds  and  Lee.— Death  of  Colonel  Washington.— Trav- 
ellers' Repose.— Milroy  and  Johnston.— Munson's  Hill,  Virginia.— The  Potomac 
closed  by  Confederate  Batteries.— Acquia  Creek.— Torpedoes.— Army  of  the 
Potomac— Quaker  Guns.— Lewinsville  and  Darnestown.— Disaster  at  Ball's 
Bluff.— Death  of  Colonel  Baker.— False  Reports  of  Battles.— General  Stone 
in  Fort  Lafayette.— Fault-finding.— Soldiers'  Jokes.— Hard-Tack.— Foraging.— 
Drawing  Potatoes.— Soldiers'  Slang.— General  Scott  resigns.— McClellan  Gen- 
eral-in-Chief.—Dranesville.— Winter  Quarters 126 

Chapter  XI. — The  Atlantic  Coast. 

Secretary  Welles  and  the  Navy.— Confederate  Privateers.— The  Lady  Davis.— 
The  Savannah's  Crew  treated  as  Pirates.— The  Petrel  Sunk.— The  Sumter.— 
Raphael  Semmes.— The  Laws  about  Prizes.— The  Nashville.— Blockade-running. 
—Expedition  against  Hatteras.— The  Forts  Captured.— A  Union  Expedition 
Spoiled.— Fort  Pickens  —Wilson's  Zouaves.— The  Boys  have  got  the  Money. — 
Night  Attack  on  the  Zouaves'  Camp.— Bombardment  of  Forts  McRee  and  Bar- 
rancas.—The  Manassas  Ram.— Fight  with  the  Union  Fleet  in  the  Mississippi.— 
Fire-Ships 140 

Chapter  XII. — Deeds  of  the  Navy. 

The  Port  Royal  Expedition.— Hilton  Head.— The  Mosquito  Fleet.— Port  Royal.— 
Beaufort.— French  Colony  of  1562.— Capture  of  the  Forts.— Cotton-burning.— 
Massa  Bobolition.— Big  Tybee  Island.— Martello  Tower.— Sinking  of  the  Stone 
Fleet  at  Charleston.— Mason  and  Slidell.— The  Trent  and  the  San  Jacinto.— 
Lieutenant  Fairfax  and  Miss  Slidell.— Honors  to  Captain  Wilkes.— The  British 
Lion  Growls  and  Gets  Ready  for  War.— I'm  Off  to  Charleston.— Mr.  Lincoln's 
Story  of  the  Two  Dogs.— Mr,  Seward's  Joke.— Mason  and  Slidell  Delivered  up.    152 

Chapter  XIII.— Mill  Spring.— Fort  Henry. 

zollicoffer  in  kentucky.— camp  wildcat.— general  schoepf.— sham  secession 
of  Kentucky.— General  Buell  —  Colonel  Garfield.— Battle  of  Mill  Spring.— 
Death  of  Zollicoffer.  —  The  Yankees  will  Cotch  us.— Contraband  Fun.— 
Schnapps!  Schnapps!— Albert  Sidney  Johnston.— Forts  Henry  and  Donelson.— 
Commodore  Foote.— Torpedoes.— Capture  of  Fort  Henry.— General  Tilghman. 
—A  Brave  Boy 160 

Chapter  XIV. — Fort  Donelson. — Nashville. 

The  Tennessee  River  Opened.— General  Grant.— Commodore  Foote  as  a  Preacher. 
—Siege  of  Fort  Donelson.— Sharpshooters.— A  Gallant  Boy.— Sleet  and  Snow.— 
Foote  and  his  Gunboats.— The  Commodore  Wounded.— a  Bold  Sortie.— The  Con- 
federates Checked.— Escape  of  Floyd  and  Pillow.— Forest  and  his  Cavalry.— 
Unconditional  Surrender  Grant.— Triumphal  Entry.— Clarksville  and  Nash- 
ville Occupied.— Andrew  Johnson.— A  Sharp  Newsboy.— The  Confederates 
Abandon  Columbus.— John  Morgan— The  Disobedient  Soldier.— An  Unfortunate 
Gatekeeper.— A  Costly  Load  of  Meal.— Morgan  and  the  Telegraph  Operator..  171 

Chapter  XV. — Roanoke. — New  Berne. — Pulaski. 

Expedition  against  Roanoke  Island.— A  Gunboat  Fight.— Fort  Bartow.— A  Gallant 
Attack.— Zou!  Zou!  Zou!— Capture  of  Roanoke  Island.— Elizabeth  City.— Gallant 
John  Davis.— Attack  on  New  Berne.— News  from  Manassas.— Fall  of  New  Berne. 
—The  Daily  Progress.— De  Rotten  Balls.— The  Child  of  The  Regiment.— Bom- 
bardment of  Fort  Macon.— A  Patched  Flag.— Battle  of  South  Mills.— Siege  of 
Fort  Pulaski.— Mortars  and  how  to  Fire  Them.— All's  Well!— A  Regiment  of 
Whittlers.— Pulaski  Surrenders.— Fort  Clinch.— An  Old  Newspaper.— Hold  on, 
Mars' Yankee!... , , , 184 


viii  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  XYI. — Pea  Ridge. — Island  Number  Ten. 

Price  in  Springfield.— Retreats  before  Curtis.— Sugar  Creek. — Curtis  Falls  back 
to  Pea  Ridge.— Albert  Pike  and  his  Indians.— Earl  Van  Dorn.— Battle  of  Pea 
Ridge.— Elkhorn  Tavern.— A  Night  of  Anxiety.— Death  of  Ben.  McCulloch.— 
The  Confederates  Retreat. — Indian  Atrocities.— Beauregard  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley.— A  New  Line  of  Defence.— Island  Number  Ten.— General  Pope  Attacks 
New  Madrid.— The  Confederates  Abandon  the  Forts.— Commodore  Foote  and 
his  Fleet.— Bombardment  of  Island  Number  Ten.— Digging  a  Canal. — Gunboats  ■ 
Running  the  Batteries.— The  Little  Gibraltar  Surrenders 197 

Chapter  XYII. — Shiloh. — Memphis. 

Beauregard  at  Corinth.— Grant  and  Halleck.— Pittsburg  Landing.— Albert  Sydney 
Johnston  Jolns  Beauregard.— Marches  against  Grant— Shiloh  Church.— An 
Uncomfortable  Night.— We  Shall  Sleep  in  the  Enemy's  Camp.— The  Union  Army 
Surprised.— Sherman  and  his  Men.— Skulkers.— Death  of  Johnston.— Grant  at 
Bay.— Beauregard  Keeps  his  Promise.— Buell  to  the  Rescue.— The  Gunboats  do 
Good  Service.— A  Dreadful  Retreat.— Boats  Enough.— Kentuckians  at  Shiloh. 
—Hold,  Bill  !  That's  Father  '.— Schpike  Dem  Guns  !— Mitchell  in  Huntsville.— 
Halleck  Relieves  Grant  of  Command.— Corinth.— Quaker  Guns.— Fort  Pillow.— 
Battle  of  Gunboats.— Memphis  Taken 207 

Chapter  XYIII. — New  Orleans. 

Expedition  against  New  Orleans.— Ship  Island.— Farragut  and  his  Fleet.— Defences 
of  the  City.— Mortar  Vessels  Disguised.— Fire-Rafts.— a  Furious  Bombard- 
ment.—Farragut  Passes  the  Forts.— The  Varuna  Sunk.— A  Brave  Boy.— An 
Awful  Sight.— The  Hartford  in  Flames.— Sinking  of  the  Gunboats.— The 
Manassas  Explodes.— New  Orleans  Amazed.— Ships  and  Cotton  Burned.— Gen- 
eral Lovell.— Mumford  and  the  Flag.— The  Forts  Surrender  to  Porter.— A 
Fat  Man  Grows  Lean.— Butler  in  New  Orleans.— hanging  of  Mumford.— But- 
ler's Accusers.— Farragut  Passes  the  Vicksburg  Batteries.— Battle  at  Baton 
Rouge.— The  Arkansas  Destroyed.— Capture  of  Galveston 218 

Chapter  XIX. — Merrlmack  and  Monitor. 

Iron-Clads.— The  Merrimack.— She  Steams  to  Hampton  Roads.— An  Iron  Storm.— 
Sinking  of  the  Cumberland.— The  Congress  Surrenders.— The  Minnesota  in 
Danger.— The  Merrimack  Leaves  her  Prey.— A  Dismal  Night. — Arrival  of  the 
Monitor.— A  Cheese-Box  on  a  Plank.— Explosion  of  the  Congress.— A  Sunday 
Visit.— The  Monitor  in  Waiting.— The  Cheese-Box  is  Made  of  Iron  !— Lieutenant 
Worden  Wounded.— The  Merrimack  Retreats.— The  Minnesota  Saved.— Honors 
to  Ericsson.— Joe's  Dead 231 

Chapter  XX. —Peninsula  Campaign. 

The  Grand  Army  of  the  Potomac— Washington  and  Richmond.— McClellan  III.— 
Edwin  M.  Stanton— Plans  for  Taking  Richmond.— President  Lincoln's  Order.— 
Opposition  to  McClellan.— The  Confederates  Leave  Manassas.— McClellan's 
Command  Changed.— Stonewall  Jackson  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.— General 
Banks  Opposes  him.— The  Potomac  free.— The  Army  Goes  to  the  Peninsula. — The 
French  Princes. — Mr.  Lincoln  and  the  Politicians. — Siege  of  Yorktown. — Big 
Nigger,  Come  Down  ! — Old  Seth.— Joseph  E.  Johnston.— Torpedoes.— Battle  of 
Wtlllamsburg.— The  Chick  a  hominy.— Norfolk.— Drury's  Bluff.— Panic  in  Rich- 
mond   240 

Chapter  XXI. — Shenandoah  Valley. — Chickahomxny. 

McDowell  at  Fredericksburg.— Porter  at  Hanover  Court-House.— McDowell  Or- 
dered to  Washington. — Stonewall  Jackson.— Jackson  or  a  Rabbit.— Jackson's 
Prayers.— Banks  Driven  into  Maryland.— Jackson  Repulses  Fremont.— Defeats 
Shields.— Turner  Ashby.— A  Gallant  Deed.— Floods  in  the  Chickahominy.— The 


CONTENTS. 


IX 


Union  Army  Divided.— Seven  Pines  and  Fair  Oaks.— General  Johnston  Wounded. 
—Robert  E.  Lee  in  Command  of  the  Confederates.— The  Swamps  of  the  Chicka- 
hominy.  —  Balloons  in  war.— How  are  yees,  byes  ?— Jeb  Stuart. —The  Ride 
Around  McClellan.— White  House.— Washington's  Marriage.— Stonewall  Jack- 
son and  the  Farmer 252 

Chapter  XXII. — Seven  Days'  Fight. 

Lee  Attacks  McClellan.  —  Beaver  Dam  Creek.— Battle  of  Mechanicsville.—  A 
Change  of  Base.  —  Battle  of  Gaines's  Mills.— General  McCall's  Escape.  — 
McClellan's  Retreat  to  the  James  River.— The  White  Oak  Swamp.— Battle  of 
Savage's  Station.— Battle  of  Frazier's  Farm.— McCall  a  Prisoner.— Battle  of 
Malvern  Hill.— McClellan  at  Harrison's  Landing. — End  of  the  Seven  Days' 
Fight.— Departure  of  the  French  Princes.— President  Lincoln  Visits  McClel- 
lan.—Three  Hundred  Thousand  More  Volunteers 264 

Chapter  XXIII. — Pope's  Campaign. 

General  Pope  and  the  Army  of  Virginia.— Pope's  Address  to  his  Soldiers.— Hal- 
leck  as  General-in-Chief.— Lee's  Strategy.— Battle  of  Cedar  Mountain. — 
Stuart's  Ride  around  Pope.— Pope's  Uniform.  —  Stonewall  Jackson  behind 
Pope.— Fight  at  Bristow  Station.  — The  Second  Battle  of  Bull  Run. —Pope 
Deceived.  —  Battle  of  Chantilly.  —  Pope  Shows  his  Back.  —  Death  of  Phil 
Kearny. — Pope  Resigns  and  Goes  West.  —  McClellan  again.  —  Pope's  Charges 
against  Porter.— Lee's  Successful  Campaign.— The  Confederates  Cross  the 
Potomac— Cool  Reception  in  Maryland.— Barbara  Frietchie  and  Stonewall 
Jackson 271 

Chapter  XXIV. — South  Mountain. — Antietam. 

McClellan  Marches  against  Lee.  —  Welcome  in  Frederick.  —  A  Fortunate  Dis- 
covert.—Stonewall  Jackson  goes  to  Harper's  Ferry.  —  Battles  of  South 
Mountain  and  Crampton's  Gap.— Fall  of  Harper's  Ferry.— Lee  Hard  Pressed.— 
His  Position  near  Sharpsburg.— The  Battle  of  Antietam.— Death  of  General 
Mansfield.— Hooker  Wounded.— Sumner  Holds  his  Ground.— Burnside  Attacks 
on  the  Left.  —  Lee  Recrosses  the  Potomac.  —  A  Drawn  Battle.  —  Good-by, 
Sammy — I'm  a  Bold  Sojer  Boy.— Jeb  Stuart  in  Pennsylvania.— McClellan  Fol- 
lows Lee.— Superseded  by  Burnside.— McClellan's  Farewell.— A  Question  for 
General  Halleck 280 

Chapter  XXV .  — Fredericksburg. 

Burnside's  New  Plan.— The  March  to  Fredericksburg.— Lee  Holds  the  Hills.— Pon- 
toon Bridge-building.  —  Sharpshooters.  —  The  Town  Shelled.  —  A  Dangerous 
Crossing.— The  Graybacks  Hunted  out  of  their  Holes.— A  Brave  Drummer- 
Boy.— The  Army  Crosses  the  River.— Battle  of  Fredericksburg.— Hooker's  Gal- 
lant Assault. —  Burnside  Retreats. —  Confederate  Hopes.  —  Burnside  Resigns, 
and  Hooker  Takes  Command  of  the  Army.— Winter  Quarters.  —  Sad  Condition 
of  the  Confederates.— The  Ladies  at  Work.— Confederate  Manufactures. — 
Wooden  Shoes.— Southern  Books.— A  Home-made  Christmas.— Picket  Talks.— 
My  Mother!  my  Mother  !— Jackson's  Resigned  ! 292 

Chapter  XXVI. — Bragg  in  Kentucky. — Murfreesboro. 

Grant  and  Sherman.— Grant  again  in  Command.— Sherman's  Cotton  Money.— General 
Bragg  Succeeds  Beauregard.— Morgan's  Raid  into  Kentucky.— Forest  in  Tennes- 
see.— Kirby  Smith  Enters  Kentucky.— Battle  of  Richmond.— Bragg  Captures 
Union  Troops  at  Mumfordsville.— A  Long  Wagon  Train.— Buell  Marches  against 
Bragg.  Battle  of  Perryville.— Bragg  Retreats  into  Tennessee.— Rosecrans 
Succeeds  Buell.— Battle  of  Iuka.— Van  Dorn  Attacks  Corinth.— Defeated  by 
Rosecrans.— Pemberton  Succeeds  Van  Dorn.— Bragg  at  Murfreesboro. —Presi- 
dent Davis's  Visit.  —  Cowardly  Soldiers.  —  The  Battle  of  Murfreesboro.  — 
Bragg's  Retreat 305 


fe 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  XXVII. — Emancipation. — Conscription. 

The  Union  and  Slavery.  —  The  Abolitionists.  —  New  Ideas  about  Slavery.— Massa 
Linkum's  Sojers.— Butler  and  Contrabands.— Fremont's  Proclamation.— Hunter's 
Order.— President  Lincoln  Proposes  to  Buy  the  Slaves.— His  Letter  on  the 
Subject.— Lincoln  Changes  his  Views  about  Slavery.— His  First  Emancipation 
Proclamation.— His  Vow.— The  Second  Emancipation  Proclamation.— Its  Effect 
in  the  South  and  in  the  North.— Arbitrary  arrests.— Spies.— Colored  Soldiers. 
—The  Conscription  Bill.— Drafting.— Riots  in  New  York 315 


Chapter  XXVIII. — Vicksburg. 

Vicksburg.— Its  Great  Importance.— Grant's  Plans.— Capture  of  Holly  Springs.— 
Sherman  Defeated.— Fort  Hindman  Taken.— Arrival  of  Grant.— Canal  Digging. 
— Joseph  E.  Johnston.— Running  the  Batteries.— Grierson's  Raid.— Grant  Lands 
at  Bruinsburg.—  Battle  of  Port  Gibson.— Grand  Gulf  Evacuated.— Sherman  Joins 
Grant.— Taking  a  Rest.— Battle  of  Raymond.— Capture  of  Jackson.— A  Good 
Union  Man.— Jeff  Davis's  Book.— Battle  of  Champion  Hills.— Battle  of  Big 
Black  River.  —  Bridge  Building. —  Vicksburg  Surrounded. — Two  Repulses. — 
Calibre  54. — Cave  Life.— Mines  and  Countermines.— Scarcity  of  Food. — Grant  and 
Pemberton.  —  The  Surrender.  —  Effects  of  the  Bombardment.  —  The  Hotel  de 
Vicksburg.— The  Vicksburg  Citizen.  —  What  was  Gained  at  Vicksburg.  —  Grakt 
and  the  Steamboat  Men 333 


Chapter  XXIX. — Port  Hudson. — Chancellorsville. 

Sherman  pursues  Johnston.— Jackson  Burned.— Siege  of  Port  Hudson.— Whistling 
Dick.— A  Bloody  Repulse.— Mules  and  Rats.— The  Surrender.— The  Mississippi 
Opened.— Brashear  City.— On  de  Lord's  Side,  Massa.— The  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
—Corps  Badges—  Mosby.— Capture  of  General  Stoughton.— I  Can't  Make  Horses. 
—Hooker's  Advance.— Chancellorsville.— The  Wilderness.—  Frightened  Deer 
and  Rabbits.— Rout  of  the  Eleventh  Corps.— Death  of  Stonewall  Jackson.— 
Remember  Jackson.  —  Hooker  Stunned.  —  Lee  between  Two  Fires.—  Sedgwick 
Driven  Back.— Hooker's  Retreat— Stoneman's  Raid.— A  Gallant  Deed 342 


Chapter  XXX. — Gettysburg. 

Confederate  Hopes.— Napoleon  and  Mexico.  —  Another  Invasion'  of  the  North.— 
The  Two  Armies.— Stuart's  Review.— Ewell  Surprises  Milroy— The  Potomac 
Crossed.— Pennsylvania  in  a  Panic— Hooker  Follows  Lee.— Meade  in  Command.— 
The  Eyes  of  an  Army.— Gettysburg— The  First  Day's  Fight— Death  of  Reynolds. 
—Hancock  to  the  Front.— The  Second  Day's  Fight.— Little  Round  Top.— Ewell 
on  CuLr's  Hill.— The  Third  Day's  Fight.— A  Grand  Bombardment.— Pickett  and 
his  Virginians.— A  Dreadful  Struggle.— Victory  for  the  Union.— A  Terrible 
Retreat.— Wasted  Ammunition.— Old  John  Burns.— Jenny  Wade.— The  News  in 
Richmond.— Meade  Follows  Lee— Winter  Quarters 354 

Chapter  XXXI.  —  Chick amaug a. —Chattanooga.  — Knoxyille . 

Rosecrans  Moves  against  Bragg.— Cavalry  Fights.— Van  Dorn  Attacks  Franklin.— 
Streight's  Raid.— John  Morgan  Across  the  Ohio.— Indiana  and  Ohio  Aroused  — 
Morgan  Defeated.— His  Capture.— The  Raiders'  Plunder.— An  Old  Hero.— Chat- 
tanooga.—Bragg  Falls  Back.— Battle  of  Chickamauga.— Thomas's  Bravery.— 
Rosecrans  Retreats  to  Chattanooga.— Johnny  Clem.— Half  Rations.— Grant  in 
Command.— He  Opens  Communications.— Burnside  in  East  Tennessee.— Arrival  of 
Sherman.— The  Battle  above  the  Clouds.— Pulpit  Rock.— Storming  of  Missionary- 
Ridge.— Here  is  your  Mule.  —  Bragg's  Retreat. —Longstreet's  Defeat.— Sher- 
man's March  to  Knoxville.— Starving  on  Roast  Turkey 372 


CONTENTS.  xi 


Chapter  XXXII. — The  Monitors. 

Loss  of  the  Monitor.— The  Montauk  and  the  Nashville.— Fort  McAllister.— The 
Confederates  Attack  the  Fleet  off  Charleston.  —  The  Monitors  Attack 
Charleston.— The  New  Ironsides.— Cables  and  Torpedoes.— A  Terrible  Bombard- 
ment.—Loss  of  the  Keokuk.— Capture  of  the  Atlanta.— New  Confederate  Flag. 
—I  Don't  Care  About  Your  Torpedoes.- Gillmore  at  Charleston.— Fort  Wag- 
ner.—Men  Eighteen  Feet  High  Wanted.— The  Swamp  Angel.— Sumter  in  Ruins.— 
Taking  of  Morris  Island.— Assault  on  Sumter.— Loss  of  the  Weehawken.— New 
Berne  Attacked.— Little  Washington.— Raids  and  Contrabands.— I'se  Just  Sam..  387 

Chapter  XXXIII. — Privateers. — Mobile  Bay. 

Expedition  to  Florida.— Battle  of  Olustee.— Loss  of  Plymouth.— Raid  of  the  Albe- 
marle.—Her  Destruction  by  Cushing.— The  Confederate  Privateers.— The  Ala- 
bama.—Captain  Semmes.— The  Fight  with  the  Kearsarge.— Rescue  of  Semmes.— 
The  Florida  and  the  Wachusett.—  The  Shenandoah.—  Whalers  Burned.—  The 
Last  Hostile  Act.— Rams  for  the  Emperor  of  China.— The  Stonewall.— The  Ala- 
bama Claims.—  Mobile  Bay.—  Farragut  Passes  the  Forts.— The  Admiral  in  the 
Shrouds.— Sinking  of  the  Tecumseh.— Torpedoes.— Four  Bells.— The  Ram  is  Com- 
ing.—Fight  with  the  Tennessee.— Ramming  the  Ram.— Save  the  Admiral.—  Sur- 
render of  the  Forts 400 

Chapter  XXXIV. — The  South  and  West. 

Sherman's  Meridian  Expedition.— Jeff  Davis's  Neckties.— Sherman's  Danger.—  De 
Day  ob  Jubilee.—  Smith  Defeated  by  Forrest.— Paduc ah  Attacked.— Massacre 
at  Fort  Pillow.—  Forrest  Defeats  Sturgis.—  A  Ride  into  Memphis.—  Sherman 
and  Banks.— The  Anvil  Chorus.— The  Red  River  Expedition.— Fort  DeRussey.— 
Kirby  Smith  and  Dick  Taylor.— Natchitoches.— Battle  of  Mansfield.— A  Skedad- 
dle.—Battle  of  Pleasant  Hill.— Loss  of  the  Eastport.— The  Dam  at  Alexandria. 
— Saving  the  Fleet.— Cotton  Stealing.— Canby  Succeeds  Banks.— Steele's  Defeat 
in  Arkansas.— The  Last  Invasion  of  Missouri.— Pleasonton  and  Curtis.— Price's 
Flight.— John  Morgan  in  Kentucky  Again.— Burbridge  Defeats  Him.— Morgan's 
Death 415 

Chapter  XXXV. — Grant  in  Virginia. 

The  Confederacy  in  1863.— Poverty  and  Paper  Money.— Christmas  in  Richmond.— 
Treatment  of  Union  Prisoners.— Exchanges.— Negro  Soldiers.— Prison  Camps.— 
Libby  Prison.—  Belle  Isle.— Efforts  to  Free  Prisoners.—  Ulric  Dahlgren.— A 
Mine  under  Libby.— Grant  made  Lieutenant-General.— His  Commission.— Grant 
with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac— His  Plan.— The  Rapidan  Crossed.— Battle  of 
the  Wilderness.— Lee  in  Danger.— Longstreet  Wounded.— Fire  in  the  Woods.— 
The  March  to  Spottsylvania.— Sharpshooters.— Death  of  Sedgwick.— Battle  of 
Spottsylvania.— I  Propose  to  Fight  it  Out  on  this  Line.— Hancock  and  Stewart. 
—Danger  of  the  Confederate  Army.—  Terrible  Musketry  Fire.— Grant  again 
Marches  Southward 428 

Chapter  XXXVI. — Grant  and  Lee. 

Butler  at  Bermuda  Hundred.— Beauregard  Attacks  Him.— Bottled  Up.— Crook's 
Raid.— Morgan  Defeats  Averill.— Breckinridge  Defeats  Sigel,— Battle  of  Pied- 
mont.—Hunter  in  West  Virginia.— Sheridan  and  Stuart.— Battle  at  Yellow 
Tavern.— Death  of  Stuart.— Lee  at  Cold  Harbor.—  Cavalry  Fight.— Battle  of 
Cold  Harbor.  —  Grant's  Change  of  Base.  —  Terrible  Slaughter.  —  The  Army 
Crosses  the  James.— Petersburg  Attacked.— Early  Crosses  the  Potomac. — 
Battle  of  the  Monocacy.— Baltimore  Excited.— Capture  of  General  Franklin. 
—His  Escape.— Early  Attacks  Washington.— He  is  Driven  Back  to  Virginia.  - 
Defeat  of  Crook.  —  Confederate  Cavalry  in  Pennsylvania.  —  Chambersburg 
Burned.— Sheridan  in  Command.— Battle  of  Opequan  Creek.— Fisher's  Hill.— 
Cedar  Creek.— Sheridan's  Ride.— The  Petersburg  Mine— Hancock's  Fight.- Thb 
Weldon  Railroad.— Dutch  Gap  Canal ,  442 


xii  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  XXXVII. — Atlanta  Campaign. 

Johnston  and  Sherman.  —  The  Two  Armies.  —  Cars  and  Locomotives  Wanted.— 
Thomas's  Circus.  —  Dalton  to  Resaca.  —  Dallas.— New  Hope  Chdrch.  —  Rome 
Taken.— Kenesaw  Mountain.— Brave  Engineer.— Death  of  General  Polk.— Bad 
Weather.— Wood  Ticks.—  Sherman  Repulsed.— Johnston  Crosses  the  Chatta- 
hoochee. —  Rousseau's  Raid.  —  Are  these  Yanks?  — Hood  Succeeds  Johnston. — 
Atlanta.— Hood's  Sally.— He  Fights  Again.— Death  of  McPherson.— Raids  on 
the  Railroads.— Hood  Strikes  a  Third  Time.— Siege  of  Atlanta.— Hood  Cut 
Off.— Evacuation  of  Atlanta.— Honors  to  Sherman.— Atlanta  Desolated.— Davis 
Visits  Hood. —  Hood  Marches  Northward.— Allatoon a. —  Signalling. — A  Dupli- 
cate Tunnel.— Atlanta  in  Ashes.— Glory,  Hallelujah  !— Grant  is  Waiting  for 
Us! 458 

Chapter  XXXVIII. — March  to  the  Sea. 

Anxiety  in  1864.— Grant  and  Lee.— Secretary  Chase  and  the  Finances.— Greenbacks. 
—Gold.— Presidential  Election.— News  from  Atlanta.— Copperheads.—  Re-elec- 
tion of  Lincoln. —  Abolition  of  Slavery.—  Hood  Marches  Northward.—  Battle 
of  Franklin.— Siege  of  Nashville.— Thomas's  Victory.— Flight  of  Hood.— Sher- 
man's Army. — Orders  for  Foraging.— Jeff.  Davis's  Neckties.— Contrabands.— Dey 
say  you's  Massa  Sherman.— Bummers.— Marching  and  Camping. — Soldiers'  Pets.— 
Pet  Pigeon. — Old  Abe,  the  War  Eagle.—  Milled geville.—  Beauregard  Again. — 
Soldiers'  Fun.— Cavalry  Skirmishes.— Prison  Pen.— Andersonvtlle.— Torpedoes. — 
Defences  of  Savannah.— Storming  of  Fort  McAllister.— Savannah  as  a  Christ- 
mas Gift 475 

Chapter  XXXIX. — Savannah  to  Goldsboro. 

Secretary  Stanton  in  Savannah.— Politics.— Sherman  Disgusted.— Expedition  against 
Fort  Fisher.— Butler's  Powder-Boat.— Heavy  Bombardment.— General  Terry  suc- 
ceeds Butler.— Bragg  again. — Good-by,  Wilmington  [—Capture  of  Fort  Fisher.— 
General  Schofield. — Wilmington  Taken.— Goldsboro  Entered.— Sherman's  March 
from  Savannah.— Wheeler  and  Hampton.— Floods.— The  Salkehatchie.— Horrors 
of  War.— South  Carolina  Punished.— Cotton  Burning.— Columbia  Surrendered  — 
Burning  of  the  City. — Confederate  Money. — Hardee  Evacuates  Charleston.— The 
City  in  Flames.— Desolation. — Sumter  and  the  Flag.— Jus'  look  at  his  Hoss. — 
Cheraw—  Johnston  again  in  Command.— Hampton  and  Kilpatrick.— Fayettevtlle. 
— A verysboro.— Battle  of  Bentonsville.— Goldsboro.— Sherman  Visits  Grant.— 
President  Lincoln.— Sherman  Returns  to  Goldsboro 492 

Chapter  XL. — Mobile. 

Stoneman's  Raid.— Salisbury.— Mobile.— Wilson's  Raid.— Fight  with  Forrest.— Tak- 
ing of  Selma.— Cotton  Burning. — Surrender  of  Montgomery. — Capture  of  Colum- 
bus.—Iron-clad  Rams.— Macon.— Joyful  News.— Defences  of  Mobile.— Canby's 
Plan. — Spanish  Fort. — Storming  of  Blakely.— Surrender  of  Mobile 507 

Chapter  XLI. — Petersburg. 

The  Confederacy  in  1865.— Conscription  and  Desertion.— Negro  Soldiers.— Confed- 
erate Money.— Lee's  Army.— Dissatisfaction  with  Davis.— Lee  Commander  in- 
Chief.— Mrs.  Davis.— Foreign  Aid  Expected.— Peace  Efforts.— War  Meetings  in 
Richmond.— Desolation  in  Virginia.— Christmas  in  1864.— War  Prices.—  Dinner- 
party. —  Southside  Railroad.—  Dinwiddie  Court-House.— Army  Telegraph. — 
Sheridan's  Raid — Early  Defeated.— Charlottesville.— Lee's  Last  Attack. — 
Fort  Steedman.— Sheridan  again  in  the  Saddle.— FrvE  Forks. — Grand  Assault 
on  Petersburg.— Fort  Alexander.— Fort  Gregg. — Death  of  A.  P.  Hill.— Lee's 
Telegram.— Petersburg  at  Last  ! 513 

Chapter  XLII. — Richmond. 

Sunday  in  Richmond.— Rumors  of  Victory. — Gayety  of  the  City.— Prayer-Meetings. — 
Davis  Receives  Lee's  Telegram.— The  News  Kept  Secret.—  Evacuation.—  Confu- 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

sion.— The  City  in  the  Hands  of  the  Mob.— Pillaging  the  Stores.— The  Tobacco 
Warehouses  Fired.— Rams  Blown  Up.—  Bridges  Burned.— The  Fire  Spreads.— a 
Dreadful  Scene.— Capitol  Square.— The  Yankees  !  The  Yankees  ! — Burning  Rich- 
mond Seen  from  the  Signal-Tower.— General  Weitzel  Enters  the  City.— The 
Flag  on  the  Capitol.— An  African  City.— Bress  de  Lord  !  No  mo'  Work  !— Black 
Cavalry.— Martial  Law.— The  Ruins.— The  Dream  Ended 523 

Chapter  XLIII. — Surrender  op  Lee. 

Lee's  Misfortune.— Davis  at  Danville.— A  Fatal  Delay.— Grant  in  Pursuit.— Sheri- 
dan.—A  Starving  Army.— Sailor's  Creek.— Capture  of  Ewell.— Across  the  Appo- 
mattox.— A  Hopeless  Struggle.  —  Grant's  Letter.  —  Lee  asks  for  Terms.  — 
Appomattox  Court-House. — Sheridan  in  Front.— A  Surprise.— Flag  of  Truce.— 
The  McLean  House.— Grant  and  Lee.— Grant's  Magnanimity.— Painful  Scene.— 
Lee  in  Richmond.— Last  Parade  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.— Joy  in  the 
North.— Stanton's  Order 533 


Chapter  XLIV. — Death  of  Lincoln. 

President  Lincoln  in  Richmond.— His  Last  Speech.— Threats  of  Assassination.— 
Grant  in  Washington.— Robert  Lincoln.— Lee's  Surrender.— At  the  Theatre. 
—John  Wilkes  Booth.— The  Fatal  Shot.— Sic  Semper  Tyrannis  !— The  Assassin's 
Escape.— Death  of  Lincoln.— Powell  Attacks  Secretary  Seward.— Reward  for 
Jefferson  Davis.— Death  of  Booth.— Universal  Sorrow.— With  Malice  toward 
None.— Funeral  Honors.— At  Rest.— President  Johnson 541 

Chapter  XLV. — Johnston. — Davis. 

Sherman  Marches  against  Johnston.— Joy  at  Lee's  Surrender.— Johnston's  Letter. 
—An  Important  Message.— Bad  News.— Meeting  with  Johnston.— Second  Inter- 
view.—Breckinridge.— The  Terms  Rejected.— Grant  in  Raleigh.— Surrender  of 
Johnston.  —  Stanton's  Insults.  —  Halleck  and  Sherman.  —  Surrender  of  Kirby 
Smith.— President  Davis's  Flight.— Danville.— Pleasing  Dreams.— A  Last  Proc- 
lamation.—Lee  Anxiously  Looked  For.— Hope  Crushed.— Davis,  Johnston,  and 
Beauregard.  —  Charlotte.  —  Reports  of  Treasure.  —  Scramble  for  Money.  — 
Cavalry  on  the  Trail.  —  Confederate  Plunderers.  —  Irwinsville.  —  The  Camp 
Surprised.— Fatal  Mistake.— Ha  !  Federals  !— The  Story  of  the  Disguise.— The 
Capture.— Fortress  Monroe.— Pardon 545 

Chapter  XL VI. — Peace. 

Grave  Fears.— The  Soldiers  Welcome  Peace.— Drafting  Stopped.— Disbanding  the 
Armies.— Stanton.— Welles.— The  Last  Review.— Grand  Reception  in  Washing- 
ton. —  The  Soldiers  at  Home.— Honors  to  the  Dead.  —  Confederate  Armies.  — 
Summary  of  Losses.— The  Cost  of  the  War.— Political  Questions.— Causes  and 
Results  of  the  War.— The  Union  Perpetual 554 


THE  WAR  FOR  THE  UNION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY  DIFFERENCES. 

The  Thirteen  Colonies.— Differences  between  Northern  and  Southern  Colonies.— 
Slavery.— The  Confederation  of  the  Colonies.— One  Nation  To-day  and  Thirteen 
To-morrow.— The  Constitution  and  the  Union.— Federalists  and  Democratic-Repub- 
licans.—Alexander  Hamilton.— Thomas  Jefferson.— Washington  a  Peacemaker.— 
France  or  England.— A  Bitter  Struggle.— Success  of  the  Federalists.— Millions 
for  Defence,  not  One  Cent  for  Tribute.— Alien  and  Sedition  Laws.— State  Rights.— 
The  Virginia  and  the  Kentucky  Resolutions.— War  with  England.— The  Hartford 
Convention.— Slave  States  and  Free  States.— The  Missouri  Compromise.— The  Demo- 
cratic Party.— Free  Trade  or  Protection.— John  C.  Calhoun.— Nullification.— 
Webster  and  Hayne.— Andkew  Jackson.— By  the  Eternal,  the  Union  shall  bb 
Preserved.— The  Compromise  Tariff. 

THE  Civil  War  of  1861-1865  in  the  United  States,  like  all 
civil  wars,  was  about  questions  of  government;  therefore, 
to  understand  well  the  causes  which  led  to  it,  it  is  necessary 
to  learn  first  something  of  the  nature  of  the  government 
and  of  the  way  in  which  it  began.  When  the  War  of  the 
Revolution  broke  out  in  1775,  the  English  settlements  which 
afterward  became  the  thirteen  original  States  of  the  Union 
were  thirteen  colonies  belonging  to  Great  Britain.  These  were, 
beginning  with  the  northernmost,  New  Hampshire,  Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  and  Georgia.  All  of  these  colonies  were  alike 
in  many  things.  Though  some  of  them  had  been  settled  by 
other  nations  than  the  English,  most  of  the  people  were  at  that 
time  Englishmen  in  feelings  and  in  language,  and  all  owned 
the  rule  of  the  sovereign  of  Great  Britain.  Their  governments 
differed  in  some  respects:  some  Avere  ruled  by  governors  and 
other  officers  sent  from  England;  some  had  charter  govern- 


2  MARLY  DIFFERENCES.  [1775. 

ments — that  is,  they  had  charters  or  written  papers  signed  by 
the  King  of  Great  Britain  giving  them  the  right  to  choose  their 
own  rulers;  and  others  had  proprietary  governments — that  is, 
they  were  ruled  by  the  proprietors  or  owners  of  the  soil  or  by 
officers  chosen  by  them,  as  in  Pennsylvania,  where  the  whole 
land  occupied  by  the  colony  was  owned  by  William  Penn;  but, 
notwithstanding  these  differences,  the  governments  of  the  colo- 
nies were  in  general  much  like  that  of  Great  Britain. 

There  were,  however,  some  other  differences  which  in  time 
caused  a  division  among  them  and  separated  the  colonies  into 
two  parts  or  groups,  northern  and  southern,  the  Northern 
Colonies  including  all  those  north  of  Maryland,  and  the  South- 
ern Colonies  all  those  south  of  and  including  it.  These  differ- 
ences were  due  partly  to  the  character  of  the  people  and  partly 
to  that  of  the  climate  and  soil  of  the  parts  in  which  they  lived. 
Though  the  settlers  in  both  parts  were  from  all  classes  of  Eng- 
lish society,  they  differed  in  one  respect:  those  who  settled  in 
the  South  were  chiefly  made  up  of  the  followers  of  King 
Charles  I.  in  the  civil  war  in  England,  while  those  in  the  North 
were  mostly  the  followers  of  the  Parliament,  who  were  opposed 
to  the  King.  The  two  classes  of  settlers  brought  with  them  to 
the  New  World  the  political  prejudices  which  had  made  them 
enemies  in  the  Old  World;  they  also  brought  some  religious 
prejudices,  which  were  another  cause  of  separation.  Both  were 
Protestant  Christians,  but  the  larger  part  of  those  who  went  to 
the  South  belonged  to  the  Church  of  England,  which  they  made 
the  established  religion  in  their  colonies  as  in  England.  Those 
who  settled  in  the  North,  on  the  contrary,  belonged  mostly  to 
sects  opposed  to  the  Church  of  England,  which  therefore  never 
became  established  among  them  as  a  state  religion.  The  people 
who  settled  in  the  North  went  there  not  so  much  to  better  their 
worldly  condition  as  to  secure  for  themselves  freedom  of  thought 
and  of  action;  those  who  settled  in  the  South  went  there  chiefly 
to  make  money  by  speculating  in  land  and  by  farming. 

The  differences  in  the  climate  and  soil  of  the  two  parts 
caused  other  differences  in  the  people.  In  the  South,  the  cli- 
mate and  soil  being  well  adapted  for  raising  tobacco,  rice,  and 
other  large  crops,  the  people  settled  on  isolated  tracts  of  land 
along  the  rivers,  and  built  few  towns.  In  the  North,  where  the 
climate  was  less  genial  and    '  1  unfit  for  raising  the  great  sta- 


1775.]  THE  THIRTEEN  COLONIES.  3 

pies  of  the  South,  there  were  few  large  estates,  and  most  of  the 
inhabitants  settled  in  towns  or  villages,  which  were  within  easy 
reach  of  each  other.  Thus  while  the  Southern  Colonies  were 
made  up  for  the  most  part  of  scattered  plantations,  the  North- 
ern Colonies  were  composed  largely  of  townships  closely  con- 
nected. In  the  early  days  slaves  were  held  in  all  the  colonies, 
and  some  were  kept  even  in  New  England  until  after  the  War 
of  the  Revolution;  but  it  was  only  in  the  Southern  Colonies 
that  slave  labor  was  found  very  profitable.  Thus  it  happened 
that  a  great  many  slaves  were  kept  in  the  Southern  Colonies 
and  very  few  in  the  Northern  Colonies.  When  the  troubles 
began  with  Great  Britain,  the  New  England  Colonies  had  only 
one  slave  to  every  fifty  white  people,  while  Virginia  had  two  to 
every  three  white  persons,  and  in  South  Carolina  the  slaves  and 
the  free  people  were  about  ecmal  in  number.  The  slaves  were 
treated  alike  in  both  parts  of  the  country,  and  were  looked  upon 
as  an  inferior  race  by  almost  all  the  whites;  but  there  were  so 
many  more  of  them  in  the  Southern  Colonies  than  in  the 
Northern  Colonies  that  they  were  the  cause  of  a  great  differ- 
ence in  the  life  and  character  of  the  two  peoples.  In  the  Southern 
Colonies  the  planters  lived  on  great  plantations,  surrounded  by 
slaves,  who  did  all  the  work.  Labor  came  to  be  looked  upon 
as  a  mark  of  inferiority,  fit  only  for  slaves;  so  there  could  be 
no  middle  class  of  respectable  laborers,  and  the  people  were 
made  up  almost  entirely  of  masters  and  of  slaves.  In  the 
Northern  Colonies  were  a  few  large  land-holders,  but  most  of 
the  land  was  divided  into  small  farms,  worked  by  the  owners 
themselves,  or  by  laborers,  who  were  paid  for  their  work,  and 
were  free  to  go  and  come  as  tbey  pleased.  Labor  therefore 
came  to  be  looked  upon  as  honorable,  and  the  people  were  hugely 
made  up  of  respectable  free  laborers. 

While  the  colonies  were  under  the  rule  of  Great  Britain 
these  differences  were  not  of  much  consecprence.  All  their 
inhabitants  felt  that  their  interests  were  the  same,  and  when 
the  mother  country  began  her  oppressions  all  joined  to  oppose 
them  and  to  aid  each  other.  When  Massachusetts  proposed 
that  a  general  congress  of  all  the  colonies  should  meet  in  New 
York  to  consult  what  was  best  to  be  done  in  the  crisis,  and 
other  colonies  were  afraid  to  take  openly  so  important  a  step, 
South  Carolina  was  the  first  to  declare  for  union,  and  to  stretch 


4  EARLY  DIFFERENCES.  [1776-87. 

out  her  hand  to  aid  her  Northern  brethren;  and  in  that  Congress 
it  was  a  South  Carolinian  (Christopher  Gadsden)  who  said: 
"  There  ought  to  be  no  New  England  man,  no  New  Yorker, 
known  on  the  continent,  but  all  of  us  Americans." 

Thus  all  the  colonies,  both  Northern  and  Southern,  were 
united  in  a  common  bond  of  sympathy,  and  the}7  all  joined  as 
against  a  common  enemy  when  Great  Britain  tried  to  govern 
them  without  their  consent.  But  when,  after  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  it  was  attempted  to  form  a  union  of  all  the 
colonies  under  one  government,  many  difficulties  arose.  As 
there  were  no  railroads,  steamboats,  nor  telegraphs  in  those 
days,  the  people  of  the  different  colonies  did  not  see  or  hear 
from  each  other  very  often,  and  the  inhabitants  of  each  colony 
had  come  to  look  upon  the  others  as  foreigners,  or  in  much  the 
same  light  as  we  regard  the  Canadians.  When  a  union  was 
talked  about  they  grew  jealous  of  each  other  and  afraid  of  los- 
ing some  of  their  rights;  the  smaller  colonies  in  particular  being 
fearful  of  being  swallowed  up  by  the  larger  ones.  But  as  it  was 
found  that  the  struggle  against  Great  Britain  could  not  be  car- 
ried on  unless  there  was  some  controlling  power  which  had  legal 
authority  over  all,  articles  of  confederation  or  alliance  were 
agreed  upon  (1778),  and  a  government  called  the  United  States 
of  America  was  formed.  In  this  confederation  the  States  were 
equal  in  power,  each  having  only  one  vote.  There  was  no  Presi- 
dent, the  duties  of  that  officer  being  performed  by  committees 
of  Congress;  and  Congress  had  no  power  except  what  was 
granted  it  by  the  States  in  the  articles  of  confederation.  In  all 
other  things  the  States  claimed  to  be  independent  of  each  other. 
The  Federal  government — that  is,  the  government  of  the  whole 
body  together — was  thus  very  weak,  and  even  during  the  War  of 
the  Revolution  the  tie  which  bound  the  States  seemed  almost 
ready  to  break  asunder.  After  the  Avar  it  was  still  worse.  The 
United  States  had  no  credit  at  home  or  abroad,  and  foreign 
nations  refused  to  make  treaties  with  them  for  fear  they  would 
fall  to  pieces  into  several  states,  and  be  unable  to  pay  the  debts 
or  do  other  things  they  might  agree  to  do  as  one  people.  Wash- 
ington saw  how  feeble  the  new  government  was,  and  said:  "  We 
are  one  nation  to-day  and  thirteen  to-morrow.  Who  will  treat 
with  us  on  these  terms?"  And  this  soon  became  so  evident  to 
all  that  it  was  decided  that  some  change  must  be  made.    Finally 


1787.]  THE  CONSTITUTION  AND  THE   UNION.  5 

(1787)  a  convention  was  called  to  meet  in  Philadelphia  to  make 
needed  changes  in  the  government,  so  as  to  make  the  States 
keep  together  and  thus  form  a  strong  nation.  The  difficulties 
with  which  the  convention  had  to  deal  were  very  great.  The 
different  States  had  different  interests,  as  has  been  shown  before: 
some  depended  on  trade,  some  on  agriculture,  some  on  slave 
and  some  on  free  labor;  and  some  were  large,  while  others  were 
small.  The  laws  and  the  ways  of  voting  differed,  too,  in  almost 
all  the  States.  The  principal  men  of  the  different  States  had 
different  opinions  in  regard  to  the  kind  of  government  needed 
for  the  good  of  all.  Some  wished  to  make  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment so  strong  as  to  do  away  entirely  with  the  sovereign 
power — that  is,  the  power  to  rule — of  the  State  governments, 
while  others  were  unwilling  to  give  any  power  to  the  Federal 
government  which  would  tend  to  weaken  the  State  governments. 
There  were  also  some  important  sectional  or  local  questions — 
that  is,  questions  affecting  some  parts  of  the  country  and  not 
others — which  had  to  be  settled.  The  principal  of  these  were 
the  question  of  slavery  and  the  making  of  rules  for  commerce. 
The  extreme  Southern  States  were  in  favor  of  having  commerce 
free,  but  wanted  slavery,  while  the  Eastern  States,  which 
owned  many  ships,  wanted  such  navigation  laws  passed  as  would 
keep  out  foreign  ships,  and  thus  enable  them  to  carry  on  all 
the  commerce.  The  Middle  States  favored  neither  slavery  nor 
navigation  laws.  The  Eastern  States  were  also  largely  inter- 
ested in  the  slave-trade,  and  when  the  Southern  States  asked 
to  have  the  slave-trade  continued,  they  agreed  to  vote  that  it 
should  not  be  prohibited  until  1808  on  condition  that  the 
Southern  States  should  vote  navigation  laws  for  their  benefit. 
Thus  New  England,  for  the  sake  of  gain,  joined  with  the 
extreme  Southern  States  in  defence  of  slavery,  while  Virginia 
and  Delaware  voted  with  the  Middle  States  against  it. 

At  last  the  difficulties  were  settled,  and  in  September,  1787, 
was  completed  the  Constitution,  which,  excepting  a  few  changes 
since  made,  is  the  one  we  now  live  under.  Neither  the  North- 
ern nor  the  Southern  States  were  wholly  pleased  with  it,  for  the 
views  of  neither  had  prevailed;  each  had  had  to  yield  in  some 
things,  so  that  the  Constitution  was  founded  on  a  compromise. 
It  was  accepted  only  because  it  was  believed  to  be  the  best  that 
could  be  made  under  the  circumstances. 


6 


EARLY  DIFFERENCES. 


[1787-'90. 


It  was  decided  that  if  nine  of  the  thirteen  States  should 
accept  the  Constitution  it  should  go  into  force  and  become  the 
law  of  the  land.  It  was  finally  adopted  by  all  the  States  in  the 
following  order  :  Delaware,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey, Georgia, 
Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  Maryland,  South  Carolina,  New 
Hampshire,  Virginia,  New  York,  North  Carolina,  Khode  Island. 
But  it  was  not  accepted  by  all  at  once.  The  first  three  States 
ratified — that  is,  agreed  to — the  Constitution  in  the  same  year 
that  it  was  made  (1787);  the  next  eight  States  during  the  next 
year  (1788);  but  North  Carolina  did  not  ratify  until  1789,  and 
Rhode  Island  until  1790.     So,  although  the  treaty  of  peace  with 

Great  Britain  had  been  signed 
in  1783,  it  was  not  until  1790 
that  all  the  States  joined  the 
Union,  thus  showing  that 
there  was  a  considerable  differ- 
ence of  opinion  in  regard  to  it. 
Even  after  the  Constitu- 
tion had  been  adopted  by  all 
the  States,  disputes  arose  as 
to  its  real  meaning — that  is,  as 
to  the  amount  of  power  which 
it  gave  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment; and  out  of  this  question 
grew  two  great  political  par- 
ties, called  at  first  Federal- 
ists and  Anti-Federalists.  The 
Federalists  claimed  that  the  States  in  adopting  the  Constitution 
had  given  up  all  their  sovereign  rights,  or  rights  of  ruling,  to 
the  Federal  or  general  government,  and  that  the  union  of  States 
thus  formed  Avas  a  nation,  and  not  merely  a  league  of  States — 
that  is,  a  body  of  States  bound  by  an  agreement  to  hold  together 
as  long  as  they  pleased.  The  Anti-Federalists,  or  Democratic- 
Republicans,  as  they  called  themselves,  claimed  that  the  Federal 
Government  had  not  succeeded  to  all  the  sovereign  rights  of 
the  States,  but  only  to  such  powers  as  were  expressly  granted  to 
it  by  the  Constitution;  and  that  the  union  formed  under  the 
Constitution  was  only  a  league  between  States  and  not  a  nation. 
The  extreme  men  of  each  party  tried  to  stretch  the  meaning 
of  the  Constitution  to  suit  their  own  views,  the  Federalists 


Alexander  Hamilton. 


1790-'93.]         FEDERALISTS  AND  REPUBLICANS. 


seeking  to  strengthen  the  central  government  at  the  expense  of 
the  States,  and  the  Democratic-Republicans  trying  to  restrict 
the  central  government  so  as  to  give  the  States  as  much  power 
as  possible.  The  Democratic-Republicans,  therefore,  are  some- 
times called  the  State  Rights  party. 

It  is  important  to  understand  the  difference  between  the 
two  parties,  becaase,  though  they  have  sometimes  changed  their 
name  and  their  form,  they  have  remained  essentially  the  same 
throughout  our  whole  history.  The  Federalists  and  their  suc- 
cessors, who  have  sometimes  borne  one  name  and  sometimes 
another,  have  held  that  the  Constitution  is  not  to  be  un- 
derstood strictly,  but  loosely 
and  broadly,  so  as  to  give  the 
Federal  government  increased 
power  in  all  matters  of  nation- 
al importance — that  is,  in  all 
things  affecting  the  general 
good  of  the  States.  The  Dem- 
ocratic-Republican or  Demo- 
cratic party,  as  it  soon  came 
to  be  called,  on  the  contrary 
have  always  held  that  the  Con- 
stitution is  to  be  understood 
strictly  according  to  its  lan- 
guage, and  that  the  Federal 
Government  has  under  it  only  such  rights  or  powers  as  are 
expressly  specified  in  it.  The  Federal  Party  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  government  was  led  by  Alexander  Hamilton  of 
New  York,  and,  though  there  were  some  of  both  parties 
in  all  the  States,  most  of  its  supporters  belonged  in  the  North- 
ern and  Eastern  States,  where  the  people  lived  chiefly  by  trade. 
The  Republican  Party  was  led,  in  the  beginning,  by  Thomas 
Jefferson  of  Virginia,  and  most  of  its  strength  was  in  the  South- 
ern States,  where  the  people  lived  principally  by  planting. 
Washington,  though  a  Southerner  and  a  planter,  favored  the 
Federal  Party,  but  did  not  join  it  openly;  he  took  a  neutral  or 
middle  position,  and  this  is  the  reason  why  men  of  all  parties 
put  so  much  trust  in  him.  When  he  became  President  he 
made  up  his  cabinet  of  men  of  both  parties,  and  it  was  largely 
through   his   influence   in   keeping  down  the   passions  of  ex- 


Thomas  Jefferson. 


8  EARLY  DIFFERENCES.  [1793-98. 

treme  men  of  both  sides  that  the  new  government  became  a 
success. 

Daring  Washington's  presidency  took  place  the  great  revo- 
lution in  France,  by  which  the  royal  government  was  overthrown 
and  a  republic  set  up  in  its  stead.  As  France  had  been  our  ally 
in  our  Revolution  and  had  aided  us  in  winning  our  indepen- 
dence from  Great  Britain,  there  was  a  very  strong  sympathy  felt 
in  the  United  States  for  her  people,  and  when  she  declared  war 
(1793)  against  Great  Britain  and  Holland,  many  thought  that 
the  United  States  ought  to  side  with  her  against  their  old  enemy. 
This  ground  was  taken  openly  by  the  Democratic-Republicans, 
while  the  Federalists,  who  admired  England,  believed  that  the 
government  ought  to  remain  neutral — that  is,  should  take 
neither  side — in  the  struggle.  Washington  favored  neutrality 
and  friendship  with  England,  and  signed  a  treaty  with  that 
country  which  was  much  criticised. 

Washington  had  received  the  votes  of  both  parties  in  both 
of  the  elections  in  which  he  had  been  chosen  President,  but 
during  his  second  administration  party  feeling  was  so  bitter 
that  he  was  accused  by  the  extreme  Republicans  of  being  an 
enemy  to  his  country,  of  usurping  powers  which  did  not  be- 
long to  him,  and  even  of  treason.  When  he  declined  to  be  a 
candidate  for  a  third  term,  the  two  parties  had  a  hard  struggle 
for  power.  The  French  Republic  took  great  interest  in  this 
election,  and  the  French  Minister  even  went  so  far  as  to  issue 
an  address  to  the  American  people  threatening  that  if  the  Re- 
publicans were  not  successful,  France  would  have  no  further 
intercourse  with  the  United  States.  But  notwithstanding  this 
the  Federalists  wou,  and  elected  for  President  John  Adams  of 
Massachusetts.  Party  spirit  at  that  time  ran  so  high  that  the 
country  seemed  to  be  divided  into  two  bitter  factions — the 
friends  of  France  and  the  friends  of  England;  a  foreign  traveller 
then  visiting  the  United  States  said  there  seemed  to  be  in 
America  many  English  and  many  French,  but  few  Americans. 

The  troubles  with  France  went  on  increasing,  and  President 
Adams  made  a  last  effort  to  secure  peace  by  sending  three 
envoys  there  to  try  to  arrange  matters.  The  French  govern- 
ment would  not  receive  them,  but  finally  hinted  that  a  payment 
of  money  to  France  would  end  the  trouble.  Mr.  Pinckney,  of 
South  Carolina,  one  of  the  envoys,  answered  indignantly,  "  Mil- 


1798.]  ALIEN  AND  SEDITION  LA  WS.  9 

lions  for  defence,  not  one  cent  for  tribute."  The  envoys  were 
then  ordered  to  leave  France,  and  it  looked  as  i'f  there  would  be 
war  between  the  two  countries.  The  French  captured  our  ships 
on  the  high-seas,  and  there  were  some  fights  between  French 
and  American  men-of-war;  but  Napoleon  Bonaparte  soon  got 
into  power,  and  made  peace  with  the  United  States. 

During  these  troubles  with  France  the  Federalists  had  grad- 
ually grown  in  power,  and  the  watchword,  "Millions  for 
defence,  not  one  cent  for  tribute,"  had  become  very  popular. 
They  began  to  think  that  the  government  belonged  to  them, 
and  that  the  people  would  not  object  to  any  of  their  acts.  But 
they  soon  found  out  their  mistake.  Among  the  laws  passed 
during  President  Adams's  administration  were  two  called  the 
"Alien  Law"  and  the  "Sedition  Law."  The  Alien  Law 
empowered  the  President  to  arrest  and  send  out  of  the  United 
States  any  alien  whom  he  might  think  dangerous  to  the  peace 
and  liberties  of  the  country;  and  the  Sedi-tion  Law  imposed  a 
heavy  fine  and  imprisonment  on  any  persons  who  should  con- 
spire against  the  government,  or  should  publish  any  false  or 
malicious  writing  against  the  Government,  Congress,  or  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  The  Federalists  claimed  that  these 
laws  were  proper  under  the  circumstances;  that  the  Alien  Law 
was  made  necessary  by  the  acts  of  foreigners  in  this  country, 
who  had  tried  to  stir  up  the  passions  of  the  people  against  their 
own  government,  and  the  Sedition  Law  was  needed  to  ciu*b  the 
publication  of  malicious  slanders  against  the  President  and 
Congress.  The  Republicans,  0:1  the  contrary,  claimed  that 
they  were  meant  to  injure  them  as  a  party,  and  that  they  were 
contrary  to  the  Constitution,  which  declares  that  Congress  shall 
make  no  law  "abridging  the  freedom  of  speech  or  of  the 
press."  As  both  Houses  of  Congress  were  then  controlled  by 
the  Federalists,  the  Republicans  tried  to  get  the  State  Legisla- 
tures to  protest  against  these  unpopular  laws,  which,  if  uncon- 
stitutional, were  against  the  rights  of  the  States;  and  the  States 
of  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  which  had  been  settled  largely  from 
Virginia,  both  passed  resolutions  asserting  the  rights  of  the 
States.  As  these  afterward  became  very  famous,  and  are  really 
the  beginning  of  what  led  in  the  end  to  secession,  we  must  state 
briefly  what  they  were. 

The  Virginia  Resolutions,  which  were  drawn  up  by  James 


10  EARLY  DIFFERENCES.  [1798-1814. 

Madison,  and  passed  in  1798,  declared  that  the  Constitution 
was  a  compact  by  which  the  States  had  given  up  only  a  part  of 
their  powers;  that  whenever  the  Federal  Government  tried  to 
go  beyond  the  authority  given  it  by  the  States,  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  States  to  interfere  and  to  maintain  their  rights;  that  the 
Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  were  a  usurpation  by  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment of  powers  not  given  to  it;  and  that  the  State  of  Vir- 
ginia declared  those  laws  unconstitutional  and  asked  the  other 
States  to  join  her  in  that  declaration.  The  other  States  did  not 
reply  favorably,  and  Virginia  passed  the  resolutions  again  the 
next  year. 

The  Kentucky  Resolutions,  which  were  drawn  up  by  Thomas 
Jefferson,  were  nearly  the  same  as  those  of  Virginia.  They 
received  no  more  attention  than  the  others,  and  the  next  year 
(1799)  Kentucky  passed  them  again,  and  declared  in  addition 
that  a  State  had  the  right  to  nullify  and  declare  void  any  Act  of 
Congress  which  it  might  consider  unconstitutional.  We  shall 
see  by  and  by  how  this  last  declaration,  which  was  further  than 
Jefferson  intended  to  go,  was  used  afterward  by  the  nullifiers 
and  secessionists. 

The  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  and  other  unpopular  party 
acts  brought  the  Federalists  into  disrepute,  and  at  the  next 
election  Thomas  Jefferson  was  chosen  President,  and  the  Dem- 
ocratic-Republicans came  into  power;  and  from  that  time  (1801) 
onward  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  years,  they  ruled  the  country.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  the  Republicans  favored  France,  while  the  Federalists  liked 
England  better.  There  had  been  much  trouble  with  Great 
Britain  during  Jefferson's  Presidency,  and  in  1812,  when  James 
Madison  was  President,  war  was  declared  against  that  nation. 
This  was  strongly  opposed  by  New  England,  where  the  Feder- 
alists were  still  in  power,  and  the  Governors  of  Massachusetts 
and  of  Connecticut  refused  to  allow  their  militia  to  leave  their 
States,  claiming  that  the  Federal  Government  had  no  right, 
under  the  Constitution,  to  call  them  out  except  to  repel  actual 
invasion.  As  the  war  went  on  there  was  much  distress  in  the 
New  England  States  on  account  of  the  stopping  of  their  trade, 
and  the  discontent  went  so  far  that  threats  of  secession  were 
made  by  prominent  Federalists.  In  1814  a  convention  of  dele- 
gates from  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island,  who 


18l4-'20.]         SLAVE  STATES  AND  FREE  STATER.  H 

were  opposed  to  the  acts  of  the  government,  met  in  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  and  discussed,  it  is  said,  the  question  of  secession; 
but  it  is  not  now  believed  that  its  members  had  any  treasonable 
designs.  The  meeting,  however,  which  is  known  as  the  Hart- 
ford Convention,  made  a  great  stir  at  the  time,  and  many 
thought  it  was  the  plan  of  New  England  to  form  a  new  king- 
dom with  the  Duke  of  Kent  as  its  sovereign.  It  brought  the 
Federal  party  into  disrepute,  and  after  the  war  the  name  Feder- 
alist gradually  fell  into  disuse. 

The  United  States  continued  to  grow  and  to  prosper.  When 
the  Constitution  was  adopted  the  population  of  the  thirteen 
original  States  was  less  than  three  millions.  In  1820  this 
had  increased  to  nearly  ten  millions  (9,638,453).  Many  people 
meanwhile  had  gone  from  the  seaboard  to  what  was  then  the 
far  West,  and  new  States  and  Territories  had  been  formed. 
The  new  States  which  had  been  admitted  into  the  Union  were, 
in  the  order  of  their  admission,  Kentucky,  Vermont,  Tennes- 
see, Ohio,  Louisiana,  Indiana,  Mississippi,  Illinois,  and  Alabama, 
so  that  in  1820  the  whole  number  was  twenty-two.  It  will  be 
seen  that  in  these  admissions  a  free  State  was  taken  in  after 
each  slave  State — that  is,  a  State  where  it  was  not  lawful  to 
hold  slaves,  after  each  State  where  slaveholding  was  lawful. 
Thus,  Kentucky  was  a  slave  State  and  Vermont  a  free  State, 
Tennessee  a  slave  State  and  Ohio  a  free  State,  and  so  on  through 
the  list.  The  balance  of  power  was  thus  kept  even,  and  so  much 
good  feeling  existed  between  the  two  great  divisions  of  the 
country  that  party  divisions  almost  disappeared.  The  same 
differences  of  opinion  existed,  but  the  country  had  done  so  well 
under  President  Monroe,  who  succeeded  President  Madison, 
that  there  was  little  opposition  to  him  and  his  administration. 

But  the  good  feeling  soon  came  to  an  end.  In  1819  Mis- 
souri asked  to  be  admitted  as  a  State.  The  Southern  members 
of  Congress  wanted  it  admitted  as  a  slave  State,  but  the  North- 
ern members  opposed  this,  and  thus  the  great  cpiestion  of 
slavery  came  up.  Slavery  had  once  been  common  in  all  the 
colonies,  as  has  been  shown  before;  but  in  the  Northern  colo- 
nies it  had  existed  only  in  a  mild  form,  and  as  slave  labor  proved 
unprofitable  it  was  soon  abolished  in  all  the  States  north  of 
Maryland.  In  the  Southern  States,  on  the  contrary,  it  had  be- 
come the  settled  system  of  labor;  the  invention  of  the  cotton- 


12  EARLY  DIFFERENCES.  [1820-27. 

gin  (1793)  had  made  it  very  profitable,  and  the  Southerners  had 
come  to  look  upon  slavery  as  an  institution  to  be  defended. 
They  saw  that  if  more  free  States  than  slave  States  were  ad- 
mitted, that  the  States  not  holding  slaves  would  soon  get  mot* 
political  power  than  the  States  holding  them,  and  would  makja 
laws  unfavorable  to  slaves.  They  therefore  struggled  hard  to 
have  Missouri  admitted  as  a  slave  State,  but  the  North  opposed 
the  bill  and  it  was  defeated.  During  the  next  Congress  Mis- 
souri again  asked  to  be  admitted  as  a  State,  and  Maine,  which 
was  then  a  part  of  Massachusetts,  made  the  same  request. 
After  a  hard  struggle  both  were  admitted,  Maine  as  a  free 
State  and  Missouri  as  a  slave  State;  it  was  also  agreed  that 
slavery  should  be  forever  prohibited  in  all  other  territory  of  the 
United  States  north  of  36°  30'  north  latitude,  this  being  the 
southern  boundary  line  of  Missouri.  All  States  formed  in  ter- 
ritory south  of  that  line  might  have  slavery  or  not,  as  they 
preferred.  This  bargain,  which  is  called  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise of  1820,  was  supposed  at  the  time  to  have  settled  the 
question  of  slavery,  and  other  questions  became  after  that  of 
more  importance. 

In  the  next  Presidential  election  all  the  candidates  called 
themselves  Republicans,  and  it  was  really  a  personal  and  not 
a  party  election.  But  the  Republican  party  had  gradually 
divided  into  two  wings,  one  of  which  still  kept  to  the  old  prin- 
ciples of  the  party  and  believed  in  following  the  Constitution 
strictly  or  in  doing  only  things  it  expressly  permitted,  while  the 
other  took  the  loose  or  broad  view  of  the  Constitution,  as  it  is 
called — that  is,  they  believed  the  government  at  Washington  had 
a  right  to  do  almost  everything  that  the  Constitution  did  not 
prohibit,  much  the  same  as  the  Federal  party  had  done.  John 
Q.uincy  Adams  was  chosen  President  by  the  latter  wing,  which 
soon  became  known  as  the  National  Republican  party,  while  the 
other  wing  took  the  name  of  Democratic  party. 

Under  the  administration  of  President  Adams  a  new  trouble 
arose  between  the  North  and  South — the  question  of  the 
tariff.  A  tariff  is  a  list  of  rates  or  duties  to  be  paid  on  goods 
brought  from  a  foreign  country.  The  duties,  or  moneys  paid 
on  the  goods,  are  collected  at  custom-houses  established  by  the 
government  at  the  ports  of  entry,  or  ports  into  which  foreign 
vessels  are  allowed  to  enter,  and  go  toward  paying  the  expenses 


1828.] 


FREE  TRADE  OR  PROTECTION. 


13 


of  the  government.  There  have  always  been  differences  of 
opinion  about  a  tariff.  Some  people  believe  in  free  trade — that 
is,  in  having  no  tariff  or  custom-houses  at  all,  but  in  making 
trade  almost  entirely  free;  while  others  believe  in  protection — 
that  is,  they  think  that  foreign  goods  should  be  made  to  j3ay 
high  duties,  in  order  to  keep  them  out  of  the  country,  so  that 
native  manufacturers  can  make  everything  and  charge  what 
they  please.  In  the  beginning  the  Northern  States  had  favored 
free  trade,  because  they  thought  that  the  shipping  business,  then 
their  principal  source  of  wealth,  would  gain  by  it;  while  the 
Southern  States  had  favored  protection,  because  they  thought 
that  if  the  Northern  States 
could  be  prevented  from  buy- 
ing foreign  goods  they  would 
be  forced  to  go  to  manufactur- 
ing, and  that  this  would  make 
a  fine  market  for  Southern 
cotton.  The  Northern  States 
resisted,  but  the  Southern 
States  succeeded  in  having  the 
law  passed,  and  the  Northern 
States  began  to  manufacture 
cotton.  After  a  while  the  New 
England  manufacturers  found 
out  that  it  was  to  their  interest  John  c-  Calhoun. 

to  keep  out  foreign  goods  too,  while  the  Southern  States  dis- 
covered that  the  tariff  was  doing  them  an  injury  by  keeping 
out  cheap  foreign  goods  and  obliging  them  to  buy  at  higher 
prices  of  Northern  manufacturers.  Thus  it  came  about  that 
the  two  sides  changed  their  views  on  this  question,  and  the 
Southern  States  came  to  favor  free  trade,  while  the  Northern 
States  favored  protection. 

In  the  days  of  the  rule  of  Great  Britain  the  Southern  Col- 
onies had  been  well  off,  because  their  tobacco  and  other  crops 
sold  for  high  prices,  while  the  Northern  Colonies,  where  farm- 
ing did  not  pay,  were  poor,  but  in  fifty  years  after  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  they  had  changed  positions — the  North 
had  gained  wealth  and  her  towns  had  grown  into  large  cities, 
while  the  South  had  lost  her  prosperity  and  her  cities  had  re- 
mained stationary  or  had  decayed.     The  protection  which  at 


14 


EARLY  DIFFERENCES. 


[1828-'33. 


first  had  been  forced  on  I\Tew  England  had  partly  brought  about 
this  change,  and  when  (1828)  the  Protectionists  succeeded  in 
getting  Congress  to  pass  a  still  more  strict  tariff  law  much  ill- 
feeling  was  caused  in  the  South,  and  the  people  cried  out  that 
the  North  was  getting  rich  at  their  expense. 

In  the  election  of  the  same  year  (1828)  the  Democrats  were 
successful,  and  General  Andrew  Jackson  of  Tennessee,  was 
chosen  President,  and  John  C.  Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,  Vice- 
President.  Although  both  were  Southerners,  and  both  belonged 
to  the  same  party,  Mr.  Calhoun  was  much  more  extreme  in 
his  views  than  General  Jackson.  He  was  a  very  able  man,  pure 
in  his  private  life,  and  strongly  devoted  to  what  he  considered 

the  true  interests  of  his  State, 
which  he  believed  had  certain 
sovereign  rights  which  had 
never  been  given  up  to  the 
Union.  Though  he  had  fa- 
vored the  tariff  in  1816,  he 
became  strongly  opposed  to  it 
when  he  saw  that  it  was  injur- 
ing his  State.  When  the  tariff 
law  of  1828  was  passed,  he 
brought  forward  the  doctrine 
of  nullification  —  that  is,  the 
right  of  a  State  to  nullify  or 
make  null  and  of  no  force, 
within  its  limits,  any  act  of  Congress  which  it  might  consider 
unconstitutional.  This,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  the  same 
ground  taken  in  the  Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1799.  During 
the  next  session  of  Congress  this  doctrine  was  declared  by 
Robert  Young  Hayne,  Senator  from  South  Carolina,  who  made 
a  very  able  speech  in  defence  of  it.  Daniel  Webster,  then  Sena- 
tor from  Massachusetts,  made  in  reply  the  most  celebrated 
speech  of  his  life.  He  denied  that  any  State  or  States  have 
the  right  of  nullification  or  can  interfere  in  any  way  with  a  law 
of  the  United  States;  that  the  laws  of  Congress  are  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land,  and  higher,  of  course,  than  the  law  of  any 
State.  This  speech  of  Mr.  Webster's  was  more  read  through- 
out the  country  than  any  other  speech  ever  made  before  it, 
and  it  was  generally  thought,  excepting  among  the  defenders 


Daniel  Webster. 


1832.] 


NULLIFICA  TION. 


15 


of  extreme  State  Rights,  to  have  killed  forever  the  doctrine 
that  a  State  has  the  right  to  nullify  a  law  of  the  United 
States. 

President  Jackson  did  not  believe  in  a  high  tariff,  and  he 
was  ready  to  aid  South  Carolina  in  any  legal  way  to  secure  a 
change  in  the  tariff  laws;  but  while  they  were  the  laws  he 
determined  that  they  should  be  obeyed,  and  he  let  it  be  known 
that  he  would  put  down  any  attempt  at  disunion.  There  had 
long  been  ill-feeling  between  him  and  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  it  soon 
grew  to  an  open  quarrel.  At  a  dinner  given  in  Washington  in 
honor  of  Jefferson's  birthday  some  of  the  toasts  seeming  to  the 
President  to  suggest  nullification,  he  arose  and  gave  as  a  toast, 
"Our  Federal  Union:  it  must  be  preserved."  As  soon  as  it 
had  been  drunk,  Vice-President  Calhoun  stood  up  and  gave 
another  to  "Liberty,  dearer  than  the  Union." 

In  1832  a  new  tariff  bill  was  passed  by  which  the  high  duties 
laid  on  foreign  goods  by  the 
tariff  of  1828  were  lessened,  but 
Mr.  Calhoun  and  his  follow- 
ers were  still  dissatisfied,  and 
claimed  that  Congress  had  no 
right  to  lay  duties  for  protection 
— that  is, to  favor  home  manu- 
factures. Acting  under  his  ad- 
vice, the  Legislature  of  South 
Carolina  determined  to  assert 
what  was  believed  to  be  the  right 
of  the  State  to  nullify  the  law. 
A  convention  was  held  at  Co- 
lumbia (1832),  and  the  tariffs  of  1828  and  1832  were  declared 
to  be  "null,  void,  and  no  law,  nor  binding  upon  South  Caro- 
lina, her  officers  and  citizens."  The  other  States  were  warned 
that  any  attempt  at  force  would  be  followed  by  the  secession 
of  South  Carolina  from  the  Union.  The  people  of  the  State 
began  to  make  preparations  for  resistance,  and  it  looked  as  if 
civil  war  must  follow.  But  President  Jackson  loved  the  Union 
as  strongly  as  Calhoun  loved  his  own  State.  He  saw  that  the 
act  of  South  Carolina  meant  disunion.  "If  this  thing  goes 
on,"  he  said,  "our  country  will  be  like  a  bag  of  meal  with  both 
ends  open.     Pick  it  up  in  the  middle  or  endwise,  and  it  will 


Andrew  Jackson. 


16  EARLY  DIFFERENCES.  [1833. 

run  out.  I  must  tie  the  bag  and  save  the  country."  And  he 
swore,  "By  the  Eternal,  the  Union  must  and  shall  be  pre- 
served!" He  at  once  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  that  nulli- 
fication was  treason,  and  that  he  would  carry  out  the  laws  even 
with  force,  if  necessary.  He  sent  ships  of  war  to  Charleston, 
and  guarded  the  custom-houses  with  soldiers;  and  by  this 
prompt  action  probably  saved  the  country  from  civil  war. 

The  next  year  (1833)  Congress  passed  a  new  tariff  bill,  which 
provided  that  the  duties  on  foreign  goods  should  be  lowered 
gradually  until  1842,  after  which  year  the  duties  on  all  goods 
brought  into  the  United  States  were  to  be  twenty  per  cent — that 
is,  twenty  cents  on  every  dollar  of  value.  This  bill,  which  was 
brought  forward  by  Henry  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  is  called  the 
Compromise  Tariff  of  1833.  The  Nullifiers  claimed  it  as  a 
triumph  for  their  principles,  and  said  that  they  had  never  in- 
tended any  armed  resistance  to  the  United  States,  but  had  only 
threatened  it  in  order  to  gain  their  ends.  However  this  may 
have  been,  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  though  many  felt  that 
South  Carolina  had  some  grievances,  were  opposed  to  her  man- 
ner of  asserting  her  rights,  and  upheld  General  Jackson,  and 
several  of  the  States  passed  resolutions  condemning  nullifica- 
tion. Still,  there  were  many,  especially  in  the  Southern  States, 
who  believed  that  the  people  of  South  Carolina  had  right  on 
their  side,  and  this  belief  continued  to  influence  their  action 
until  it  finally  ended  in  secession. 


CHAPTER  II. 
SLAVERY. 

Slavery  and  Emancipation.— John  Randolph's  Opinion.— Benjamin  Lund y.— William 
Lloyd  Garrison.— The  Anti-Slavery  Society.— The  Abolitionists.— Change  of  Opinion 
in  the  South.— Texas.— The  Whig  Party.— The  Liberty  Party.— War  with  Mexico.— 
The  Wilmot  Proviso.— Slave  States  and  Free  States.— The  Free-Soil  Party.— Henry 
Clay  and  the  Compromises  of  185U.— The  Fugitive  Slave  Law.— Personal  Liberty 
Laws.— The  Kansas  and  Nebraska  Bill.— Squatter  Sovereignty.— Kansas  a  Battle 
Ground.— Assault  upon  Senator  Sumner.— The  Republican  Party.— The  Dred  Scott 
Case.— Filibustering  Expeditions.— John  Brown's  Fiaid.— Capture  of  Harper's  Ferry. 
—John  Brown's  Execution.— His  Soul  is  Marching  on. 

IN"  the  early  days  the  feeling  in  regard  to  slavery  was  much 
the  same  in  the  North  and  in  the  South,  it  being  looked 
upon  by  the  best  men  in  both  parts  as  an  evil  which  in  time 
would  be  done  away  with.  This  was  the  opinion  of  Washing- 
ton, Jefferson,  Madison,  and  other  chief  men  of  the  South,  as 
well  as  of  Franklin,  Hamilton,  and  Jay  in  the  North.  The 
question  of  emancipation,  or  the  freeing  of  the  slaves,  had  been 
discussed  in  several  of  the  Southern  States,  and  societies  in 
favor  of  this  had  been  formed  at  an  early  date  in  Virginia, 
Maryland,  and  Delaware.  So  strong  was  the  feeling  against  it 
in  Virginia  that  Mr.  Randolph  said  if  the  slave  did  not  soon 
run  away  from  the  master,  the  master  would  run  away  from  the 
slave.  Indeed,  scarcely  anj^body  in  the  Border  States  then 
defended  slavery,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  unwise  assaults 
made  upon  it  by  people  in  the  Free  States,  it  is  probable  that 
the  most  northerly  Slave  States  would  have  soon  freed  their 
slaves.  But  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  it  was  different. 
Slave  labor  was  more  profitable  in  those  States,  and  their  people 
had  even  refused  to  join  the  Union  unless  they  could  bring 
from  Africa  all  the  slaves  they  wanted;  and  we  have  seen  in  the 
last  chapter  how,  by  a  bargain  with  the  New  England  States, 
they  had  secured  the  slave  trade  until  1808. 

It  had  generally  been  acknowledged  from  the  beginning  in 
the  Free  States  that  slavery  was  a  cpiestion  which  the  people  of 


18  SLAVERY.  [182l-'37. 

each  State  had  a  right  to  settle  for  themselves,  but  a  feeling 
had  gradually  grown  up  that  slavery  was  not  consistent  with 
Christianity.  When  James  Monroe  was  President  (1821),  a 
young  Quaker  named  Benjamin  Lundy  began  to  publish  in 
Ohio  an  anti-slavery  periodical,  which  was  for  a  time  the  only 
one  of  the  kind  in  the  United  States.  It  did  not  attract  much 
attention,  and  was  even  printed  for  a  time  in  Tennessee,  and 
afterward  in  Baltimore.  In  1828  Lundy  made  the  acquaintance 
of  a  printer  named  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  who  became  his 
assistant  editor.  Garrison,  not  satisfied  with.Lundy's  scheme — 
which  was  to  free  the  blacks  gradually — began  in  Boston,  in 
1831,  a  weekly  paper  named  "  The  Liberator,"  in  which  he  urged 
immediate  emancipation.  This  paper,  the  last  number  of  which 
was  published  in  December,  1865,  after  slavery  had  been  abol- 
ished, was  so  bold  in  its  denunciation  of  slavery  that  Mr.  Gar- 
rison was  threatened  with  assassination,  and  several  times  nar- 
rowly escaped  mob  violence.  But  his  paper  gradually  grew  in 
influence  and  in  circulation,  and  as  it  did  so  aroused  more  and 
more  a  bitter  feeling  between  the  Garrisonians,  as  his  followers 
were  called,  and  those  who  were  opposed  to  his  teachings. 

About  this  time  (1833)  there  was  formed  in  Philadelphia 
an  association  called  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  with 
Arthur  Tappan  for  its  President.  It  declared  that  slavery  was 
a  sin  which  no  human  constitution  could  protect,  and  that 
there  was  a  higher  law  (meaning  the  law  of  God)  than  the  Con- 
stitution, which  men  ought  to  obey  before  any  human  laws. 
The  Society  set  about  stirring  up  agitation  on  the  subject  by 
printing  books,  pamphlets,  and  papers,  and  sending  them  to 
all  parts  of  the  country.  Branches  of  the  Society  were  formed 
in  other  States,  and  many  petitions  for  the  abolition  of  slavery 
were  sent  to  Congress.  But  as  Congress  had  no  right  to  act  in 
the  matter,  no  attention  was  paid  to  these  petitions,  and  so 
strong  was  the  feeling  against  the  Abolitionists,  as  they  came 
to  be  called,  that  President  Jackson  recommended  in  a  message 
to  Congress  that  their  pamphlets  and  papers  should  not  be 
allowed  to  pass  through  the  United  States  mails.  In  Northern 
cities  their  meetings  were  broken  up,  their  printing-offices  de- 
stroyed, and  many  of  their  prominent  men  were  mobbed,  and 
at  Alton,  Illinois,  one  person  named  Lovejoy  was  killed.  But 
this  persecution  only  made  the  Abolitionists  more  persistent, 


1833-'35.]  THE  ABOLITIONISTS.  19 

and  they  grew  in  strength  and  in  numbers,  and  soon  became  a 
political  power  in  the  Northern  States. 

The  Southern  people  began  to  look  upon  the  acts  of  the 
Abolitionists  as  an  unjustifiable  interference  with  their  rights. 
Slavery,  they  said,  was  an  institution  solely  under  the  control 
of  the  States  in  which  it  existed,  and  with  which  the  people  of 
other  States  had  no  right  to  meddle.  If  it  was  wicked  to  hold 
slaves,  they  alone  were  responsible  for  the  sin,  and  not  the  peo- 
ple of  the  Free  States.  But  the  Abolitionists  replied  that  it  was 
sinful  to  live  under  a  government  which  permitted  slavery,  and 
that  if  slavery  could  not  be  abolisbed  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Free 
States  to  separate  from  the  guilty  Slave  States;  and  some  of 
them  even  went  so  far  as  to  petition  Congress  for  a  dissolution 
of  the  Union. 

These  acts  of  the  Abolitionists  brought  about  a  great  change 
in  public  opinion  in  the  South  in  regard  to  slavery;  the  Border 
States  gave  up  their  ideas  of  gradual  emancipation,  and  people 
began  to  praise  slavery  as  a  great  good  rather  than  an  evil. 
Those  who  upheld  this  view  gradually  grew  in  strength,  and 
before  long  there  was  a  party  in  the  South  as  strongly  in  favor 
of  slavery  as  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North  were  against  it.  It 
was  argued  that  slavery  was  a  Bible  institution,  and  that  it  was 
a  blessing  to  both  master  and  slave;  that  the  people  of  the 
Southern  States  were  the  guardians  of  the  slaves,  who  were  a 
helpless  race,  unfit  for  taking  care  of  themselves,  and  no  greater 
calamity  could  befall  the  blacks  than  the  loss  of  the  protection 
which  they  enjoyed  under  the  patriarchal  system  of  slavery; 
that  the  Abolitionists  were  misguided  fanatics,  and  the  worst 
foes  of  the  negroes,  whose  character  fitted  them  for  dependence 
and  servitude  rather  than  for  freedom;  and  that  slavery,  instead 
of  being  abolished,  ought  to  be  extended  so  that  other  parts  of 
the  country  might  enjoy  its  benefits. 

Many  good  people  in  the  Northern  States  sympathized  with 
the  South  in  the  defence  of  its  domestic  institutions,  and  op- 
posed by  all  means  in  their  power  any  agitation  of  the  subject. 
Still  there  was  a  strong  feeling  that,  although  slavery  should 
not  be  interfered  with  in  the  States  where  it  already  existed,  its 
extension  should  be  resisted  by  all  rightful  means.  This  feel- 
ing soon  showed  itself  when  the  republic  of  Texas  asked  to  be 
admitted  into  the  Union. 


20  SLAVERY.  [1835-'45. 

Iii  1835  the  people  of  Texas  rose  in  rebellion  against  Mex- 
ico., to  which  it  then  belonged.  Many  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Texas  were  people  from  the  Southern  States,  who  had  been 
slave-holders  at  home;  but  as  slavery  had  been  abolished  by 
Mexico  in  1824,  they  had  no  right  to  keep  slaves  there.  As 
soon,  however,  as  they  had  won  their  independence  from  Mexico, 
they  established  slavery  in  Texas  and  asked  to  be  annexed  to 
the  United  States.  The  people  of  the  Southern  States  were 
very  anxious  for  the  admission  of  Texas  as  a  State,  for  its  soil 
and  climate  were  well  fitted  for  slave  labor.  But  the  ablest  men 
in  the  Northern  States  were  ojrposed  to  its  admission  because  it 
would  give  more  political  power  to  the  South  and  would  bring 
on  a  war  with  Mexico,  and  for  a  time  they  were  successful  in 
keeping  Texas  out  of  the  Union. 

The  National  Eepublicans  had  about  this  time  taken  the 
name  of  Whigs,  and  in  the  election  of  1839  they  succeeded  in 
electing  William  Henry  Harrison,  of  Ohio,  for  President  over 
Martin  Van  Buren,  who  had  then  served  one  term  as  President; 
John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  was  at  the  same  time  elected  Vice- 
President.  In  this  election  the  Abolitionists  appeared  for  the 
first  time  as  a  party,  under  the  name  of  the  Liberty  Party;  but 
they  polled  less  than  eight  thousand  votes  (7,609)  in  all  the 
States. 

President  Harrison  died  in  a  month  after  his  inauguration, 
and  Vice-President  Tyler  thus  became  President.  Mr.  Tyler 
had  been  elected  as  a  Whig,  but  he  was  really  a  believer  in  a 
strict  construction  of  the  Constitution — that  is,  he  thought  that 
the  central  government  had  only  such  powers  as  were  given  it 
by  the  Constitution,  and  he  soon  broke  with  his  party.  The 
Southerners,  by  no  means  discouraged  at  their  failure  to  get 
Texas  into  the  Union,  again  urged  its  admission,  and  Mr.  Tyler 
favored  it  in  his  message  to  Congress  (1843).  Great  opposition 
was  made  to  it  by  the  Free  State  members,  but  the  Southerners 
finally  prevailed  and  Texas  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave 
State. 

In  the  next  election  the  Democrats  were  successful,  and 
James  K.  Polk,  of  Tennessee,  was  elected  President  over  Henry 
Clay,  of  Kentucky,  the  Whig  candidate.  In  this  election  the 
Abolition  Party  polled  62,300  votes.  The  annexation  of  Texas 
brought  on  a  war  with  Mexico,  as  had  been  foreseen,  but  our 


1845-48.]         SLAVE  STATES  AND  FREE  STATES.  21 

arms  were  successful,  and  Mexico  was  obliged  to  make  a  treaty 
of  peace  (1848)  by  which  she  gave  up  all  claims  to  Texas.  She 
also  agreed  to  give  up  her  right  to  California  and  New  Mexico 
on  payment  of  a  sum  of  $15,000,000.  Thus  the  territory  of  the 
United  States  was  extended  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  This  war 
was  also  very  important  from  a  military  point  of  view,  for  in  it 
most  of  the  principal  officers  who  fought  in  the  Civil  War,  both 
on  the  Northern  and  the  Southern  side,  received  their  education 
as  soldiers. 

The  addition  of  so  much  territory  to  the  United  States 
made  both  parties  desire  to  possess  it,  the  Southerners  wanting 
to  make  more  slave  States  out  of  it,  and  the  Northerners  more 
free  States.  The  contest  over  it  began  in  1846,  before  the  land 
had  been  acquired.  In  that  year  Daniel  Wilmot,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, offered  a  motion  in  the  House  of  Representatives  that 
slavery  should  never  exist  in  any  part  of  the  said  territory. 
This,  which  is  commonly  called  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  passed  the 
House  by  the  votes  of  Whigs  and  Northern  Democrats,  but  was 
not  acted  on  in  the  Senate.  It  came  up  again  in  the  next  Con- 
gress and  was  discussed  for  a  long  time  and  finally  defeated; 
but  it  was  the  cause  of  the  rise  of  a  new  political  party  called 
the  Free-Soil  Party,  which  took  the  place  of  the  Liberty  Party, 
and  which,  like  it,  was  in  opposition  to  slavery. 

The  States  which  had  been  admitted  into  the  Union  since 
the  Missouri  Compromise  (1820)  were  Arkansas,  Michigan, 
Florida,  Iowa,  Texas,  and  Wisconsin,  three  of  which  were  slave 
States  and  three  free  States.  This  made  the  whole  number  of 
States  then  in  the  Union  thirty,  fifteen  of  which  were  free  and 
fifteen  slave  States.  In  1848,  Oregon  was  organized  as  a  Ter- 
ritory without  slavery.  As  it  would  be  admitted  in  time  as  a 
free  State,  which  would  destroy  the  balance  of  power — that  is, 
the  equality  in  the  number  of  slave  and  of  free  States — the 
Southerners  were  all  the  more  anxious  to  have  California  and 
New  Mexico  admitted  as  Territories  with  slavery,  but  all  their 
efforts  failed. 

The  question  of  slavery  had  now  grown  to  be  the  most  im- 
portant one  before  the  country.  It  must  be  thoroughly  under- 
stood that  although  the  people  were  nominally  divided  into  two 
great  political  parties,  called  Democrats  and  Whigs,  they  were 
not  really  divided  against  each  other  on  the  slavery  question. 


22 


SLAVERY. 


[1848-'50. 


There  were  pro-slavery  men  and  anti-slavery  men  in  each 
party,  and  neither  party  dared  to  take  sides  on  the  question.  In 
1848  the  Democrats  nominated  for  President  Lewis  Cass,  of 
Michigan,  and  the  Whigs  nominated  Zachary  Taylor,  of  Lou- 
isiana. In  the  Democratic  convention  a  resolution  that  Congress 
had  no  power  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  either  the  States  or 
Territories  was  ^oted  down  by  a  large  majority;  and  in  the 
election  many  Democrats  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery  in 
the  Territories  withdrew  from  the  Democratic  party  and  went 
over  to  the  Free-Soil  party,  whose  platform  declared  that  there 
should  be  no  more  slave  States  and  no  more  slave  Territories. 
^n  the  South,  too,   many  Democrats  voted  with  the  Whigs, 

preferring  Taylor,  a  slave-holder, 
to  Cass,  who  lived  in  a  free  State. 
Thus  it  happened  that  the  Free- 
Soil  or  Abolition  vote  increased 
in  this  election  to  nearly  three 
hundred  thousand  (291,263)votes, 
and  that  the  Whigs  were  success- 
ful in  electing  their  candidate. 

In  the  next  Congress,  the 
Northern  Democrats,  believing 
that  they  had  been  betrayed  by 
the  Southern  Democrats,  voted 
against  slavery.  But  though  the 
party  lost  some  in  this  way,  it 
gained  many  pro-slavery  Whigs,  so  that  the  Democratic  party 
became  stronger  and  more  pro-slavery  than  before.  The  Whigs 
gained  nothing,  and  the  party  gradually  went  down  from  that 
time.  The  leading  question  in  this  Congress  was  the  providing 
of  governments  for  the  territory  won  from  Mexico,  the  point 
of  dispute  being  slavery  or  no  slavery.  At  last  (1850)  Mr.  Clay 
introduced  a  bill  which  proposed  a  friendly  settlement  of  the 
whole  slavery  question.  His  bill  was  made  up  of  several  differ- 
ent points,  and  was  therefore  called  the  Omnibus  Bill  (Latin, 
omnibus,  for  all).  The  principal  points  in  it  were  the  admis- 
sion of  California,  which  had  made  a  constitution  prohibiting 
slavery,  as  a  State;  the  organization  of  the  Territories  of  New 
Mexico  and  Utah,  leaving  the  question  of  slavery  to  be  settled  by 
the  people  of  those  Territories  (this  was  called  at  the  time  Squat- 


Henry  Clay. 


1850-'52.j  COMPROMISE  OF  1850.  23 

ter  or  Popular  Sovereignty);  the  passage  of  a  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  for  the  capture  and  return  to  their  masters  of  slaves  escap- 
ing into  free  States;  and  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  in  the 
District  of  Columbia.  This  bill  was  opposed  by  the  Whigs  and 
the  Free-Soilers,  who  thought  it  gave  up  more  territory  to  the 
slave  power,  and  by  the  Southern  Democrats,  who  claimed  that 
any  one  had  a  right,  under  the  Constitution,  to  hold  his  slaves, 
like  other  property,  wherever  he  chose  to  settle.  In  the  discussion 
upon  it,  Mr.  Calhoun  said  that  the  Union  was  in  great  danger, 
because  the  South  was  much  discontented  at  the  increasing  agi- 
tation over  the  slavery  question  at  the  North  and  in  Congress, 
and  at  the  destroying  of  the  equilibrium,  or  equality,  in  num- 
ber, between  the  slave  and  free  States.  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr. 
Clay,  both  of  whom  had  taken  a  moderate  position  in  the  great 
disputes  on  the  slavery  question,  advocated  it,  and  the  bill  was 
finally  passed,  though  not  in  precisely  the  same  form  as  Mr. 
Clay  had  introduced  it.  The  Omnibus  Bill,  generally  known 
as  the  Compromise  of  1850,  was  accepted  by  everybody,  except- 
ing the  extreme  men  on  both  sides,  as  a  satisfactory  compro- 
mise, which,  for  the  time,  saved  the  country  from  disunion  and 
civil  war,  and  it  was  generally  looked  upon  as  a  final  settlement 
of  the  slavery  question.  But  there  were  many  people  in  the 
Northern  States  who  believed  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  to  be 
unconstitutional,  and,  although  it  had  become  the  law  of  the 
land,  determined  not  to  obey  it,  thus  taking  the  law  into  their 
own  hands,  as  the  Nullifiers  of  South  Carolina  had  tried  to  do. 
Attempts  made  to  arrest  fugitive  slaves  in  Northern  cities  led 
to  riots,  and  in  several  cases  soldiers  had  to  be  called  out  to  help 
enforce  the  law.  In  some  of  the  Northern  States  laws  called 
Personal  Liberty  Laws  were  passed  by  the  legislatures,  to  secure 
a  trial  by  jury  of  persons  arrested  under  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
so  as  to  protect  free  negroes  who  might  be  falsely  claimed  to  be 
slaves. 

In  the  next  Presidential  election  (1852)  both  the  Democrats 
and  the  Whigs  agreed  to  accept  the  Compromise  of  1850  (in- 
cluding the  Fugitive  Slave  Law)  as  a  final  settlement  of  the 
slavery  question,  and  promised  to  resist  all  attempts  to  renew 
the  agitation,  thus  taking  very  nearly  the  same  ground.  The 
Free-Soilers  or  Free  Democrats,  as  they  called  themselves,  de- 
clared slavery  to  be  a  sin  against  God  and  a  crime  against  man, 


24  SLAVERY.  [1852-'54, 

and  denounced  the  Compromise  of  1850  and  the  two  parties 
that  upheld  it.  The  Democrats  were  successful,  electing  Frank- 
lin Pierce,  of  New  Hampshire,  President,  over  the  Whig  can- 
didate, Winfield  Scott,  of  Virginia.  This  defeat  was  the  end 
of  the  Whig  party.  The  Free-Soil  candidate,  John  P.  Hale, 
of  New  Hampshire,  received  only  156,149  votes,  or  but  a  little 
more  than  three  fifths  as  many  as  the  party  had  cast  in  the  pre- 
ceding election. 

It  was  now  hoped  by  all  good  citizens  that  the  vexed  slavery 
question  was  at  last  at  rest,  but  it  was  destined  to  come  up 
again  soon  in  a  new  and  still  more  exciting  form.  In  1854  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  was  brought  before  Congress.  It  pro- 
vided for  the  organization  of  two  new  Territories,  one  directly 
west  of  Missouri,  to  be  called  Kansas,  and  the  other  north  of 
Kansas  and  west  of  Iowa,  to  be  called  Nebraska.  Both  of  these 
are  north  of  the  line  of  36°  30',  and  were  therefore,  according 
to  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820,  to  be  forever  free  terri- 
tory. But  this  bill  expressly  declared  that  Congress  had  no 
power,  under  the  Constitution,  to  interfere  with  the  domestic 
relations  of  any  of  the  States,  and  that  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise of  1820,  being  inconsistent  with  this  principle,  was  void 
and  of  no  effect,  and  entirely  done  away  with  by  the  Compro- 
mise of  1850.  The  advocates  of  slavery  therefore  demanded 
that  the  principles  of  Squatter  or  Popular  Sovereignty  should 
prevail — that  is,  that  the  people  of  each  Territory  should  have 
the  right  to  decide  the  question  of  slavery  for  themselves. 
There  was  much  opposition  to  the  passage  of  the  bill,  and  many 
petitions  against  it  were  sent  to  Congress  from  the  free  States, 
but  it  was  finally  passed,  and  became  a  law. 

The  passage  of  this  bill  was  a  gain  for  the  side  of  slavery, 
for  it  permitted  the  extension  of  slavery  even  in  those  Territories 
north  of  the  line  of  36°  30',  where,  under  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, it  had  been  expressly  forbidden.  The  South  now  de- 
termined to  take  advantage  of  this,  and  to  make  Kansas  a  slave 
State.  The  North  was  equally  determined  to  make  it  a  free 
State.  Both  parties  sent  many  emigrants  into  the  Territory, 
and  the  result  was  that  Kansas  became  a  kind  of  battle-ground 
between  the  friends  and  the  opponents  of  slavery.  For  a  time 
the  pro-slavery  men  had  the  best  of  it,  for  Missouri,  being  a 
slave  State,  prevented  Free-State  settlers  from  crossing  its  ter- 


l854->56.]  KANSAS  TROUBLES.  £§ 

ritojy,  and  sent  many  young  men  into  Kansas  to  aid  their 
friends  or  to  vote  in  elections.  This  stirred  up  the  people  of 
the  North,  emigration  societies  were  formed,  and  large  num- 
bers of  Free-State  men  poured  into  Kansas  through  Nebraska 
and  Iowa.  Most  of  these  went  to  build  up  homes  in  the  Terri- 
tory, but  a  large  part  of  those  from  the  South  did  not  go  to 
settle  permanently.  Many  Missourians,  called  Border  Ruffians 
by  the  Free-State  men,  went  over  the  border  only  to  take  part  in 
elections  or  in  the  frequent  fights  between  the  two  parties.  The 
Territory  finally  became  divided  into  two  parts,  a  pro-slavery  part, 
with  Leavenworth  for  its  chief  town,  and  an  anti-slavery  part, 
with  Topeka  and  Lawrence  for  its  chief  towns.  Each  party 
formed  a  government  to  suit  its  own  views,  and  finally  the  quarrel 
led  to  a  civil  war,  which  was  kept  up  until  near  the  close  of  185G. 
In  this  the  Free-State  towns  of  Lawrence  and  Ossawattomie 
were  sacked.  Many  lives  were  lost,  and  many  families  made 
poor  in  the  struggle,  but  in  the  end  the  Free-State  men  pre- 
vailed. 

During  this  struggle  the  excitement  which  prevailed  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  was  greatly  increased  by  an  assault  made 
on  the  floor  of  the  United  States  Senate  upon  Charles  Sumner, 
Senator  from  Massachusetts,  and  a  leading  Free-State  man,  by 
Preston  S.  Brooks,  Representative  from  South  Carolina.  Sena- 
tor Sumner  had  made  come  severe  remarks  about  Senator  But- 
ler, of  South  Carolina,  in  a  speech  about  slavery,  and  Brooks, 
who  was  a  relative  of  Butler's,  went  into  the  Senate  Chamber, 
struck  Sumner  over  the  head  with  a  cane,  and  beat  him  so  badly 
that  he  was  unable  to  attend  to  his  duties  for  several  years.  A 
resolution  to  expel  Brooks  failed  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
because  it  did  not  get  the  necessary  two-thirds  vote;  but  Brooks 
resigned,  and  was  at  once  re-elected  by  the  people  of  his  district 
in  South  Carolina.  Though  his  act  was  upheld  by  most  of  the 
people  of  the  South,  it  was  condemned  by  the  people  of  the 
North  as  an  attack  on  freedom  of  speech;  and- it  aided  greatly 
in  stirring  up  a  stronger  feeling  against  slavery. 

In  the  next  election  there  was  a  split  in  the  Whig  party,  and 
the  Northern  Whigs  and  Free-Soilers,  after  being  called  for  a 
time  Anti-Nebraska  Men,  took  the  name  of  Republicans,  which 
the  Democrats  made  into  Black  Republicans  on  account  of  their 
anti-slavery  views.     In  their  platform  of  principles  the  Repub- 


26 


SLAVERY. 


[1856-57. 


licans  declared  that  the  Constitution  gives  Congress  sovereign 
power  over  the  Territories,  that  it  is  its  right  and  duty  to  pro- 
hibit slavery  in  them,  and  that  they  were  as  a  party  opposed  to 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  The  Democrats,  who 
had  been  somewhat  divided  on  the  Kansas-Nebraska  question, 
were  again  united,  and  in  their  platform  they  approved  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  and  of  the  principle  of  Squatter  Sover- 
eignty. They  were  successful  in  the  election,  and  Buchanan 
and  Breckinridge  became  President  and  Vice-President. 

Immediately  after  President  Buchanan's  inauguration  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  gave  its  decision  in  the 
Dred  Scott  case.     Dred  Scott  was  a  negro  slave  in  Missouri,  who 

had  been  taken  by  his  master 
into  the  free  State  of  Illinois 
and  afterward  into  Minnesota, 
then  (1838)  a  part  of  the  terri- 
tory in  which  slavery  was  pro- 
hibited by  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise of  1820.  When  carried 
back  to  Missouri  he  had  been 
whipped  for  some  offence,  and 
he  then  sued  his  master  for 
damages,  claiming  that  his  resi- 
dence in  Illinois  and  Minnesota 
had  made  him  a  free  man.  His 
master  denied  that  he  had  any 
right  to  sue  him,  because  he 
was  a  slave  and  therefore  not  a 
citizen.  Dred  Scott  won  his  case  in  the  court  in  Missouri,  but 
his  master  appealed  it  and  in  time  it  came  before  the  Supreme 
Court  at  Washington.  This  court  decided  against  Dred  Scott. 
It  declared:  1.  That  Dred  Scott  was  a  slave  and  not  a  citizen  of 
Missouri;  2.  That  his  residence  in  Minnesota  did  not  make  him 
free,  because  the  Missouri  Compromise  Act  of  1820  was  uncon- 
stitutional and  void,  and  could  not  keep  a  slave-owner  from 
settling  in  any  Territory  with  his  property;  3.  That  Congress 
had  no  more  right  to  prohibit  the  carrying  of  slaves  into  any 
State  or  Territory  than  it  had  to  prohibit  the  carrying  of  any 
other  property,  for  slaves  were  property  under  the  Constitution. 
It   is  important   to   understand   this  decision,  because  it 


James  Buchanan. 


1857-59.]  DRED  SCOTT  CASE.  27 

resulted  in  a  division  of  the  Democratic  Party,  and  finally  led 
to  the  great  Civil  War,  By  the  Missouri  Compromise  slavery 
had  been  prohibited  in  a  part  of  the  territory  of  the  United 
States,  the  question  being  left  open  in  the  remaining  part.  By 
the  Compromise  of  1850  the  Missouri  Compromise  had  been 
done  away  with,  and  all  the  territory  of  the  United  States  had 
been  thrown  open  to  slavery,  subject  to  the  principle  of  Squatter 
or  Popular  Sovereignty.  But  the  Dred  Scott  decision  went 
still  further,  and  declared  the  right  of  slave-owners  to  carry 
their  property  (slaves)  into  any  State  or  Territory  of  the  United. 
States.  Though  not  liking  this  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
the  greater  part  of  the  Northern  people  were  willing  to  obey  it 
as  the  law  of  the  land;  but  there  were  many  who  were  as  un- 
willing to  receive  it  as  law  as  they  had  been  to  acknowledge  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  Even  a  large  part  of  the  Democratic 
party  in  the  North,  who  had  heretofore  agreed  to  nearly  all  the 
claims  of  the  South,  became  discontented  at  this  new  claim,  and 
chose  to  divide  the  party  rather  than  to  give  up  to  it. 

The  pro-slavery  leaders  had  for  some  time  foreseen  that  the 
South  would  be  unable  to  secure  as  many  States  as  the  friends 
of  freedom,  and  that  their  political  power  consequently  would 
soon  be  gone.  Up  to  1848,  when  Wisconsin  <  ame  into  the 
Union,  the  number  of  the  slave  and  the  free  States  had  been 
even,  there  being  just  fifteen  of  each,  and  consequently  each 
section  had  an  equal  number  of  United  States  Senators.  But 
the  admission  of  California  as  a  free  State  (1850)  had  destroyed 
the  equilibrium,  and  the  admission  of  Minnesota  had  added  one 
more  to  the  free  States,  making  seventeen  free  States  to  fifteen 
slave  States.  This  made  the  contest  in  regard  to  Kansas  all  the 
more  bitter,  and  the  pro-slavery  men  struggled  with  almost  the 
energy  of  despair  to  make  it  a  slave  State.  Before  this  time, 
too,  they  had  made  many  efforts  to  secure  Cuba  from  Spain, 
both  by  purchase  and  by  filibustering  expeditions,  with  the  ob- 
ject of  making  slave  States  of  it.  Filibustering  expeditions 
were  sent  also  to  Central  America,  in  hope  of  acquiring  there 
territory  fitted  for  slave  labor.  But  these  efforts  were  all  in 
vain,  and  at  last  a  strong  disposition  was  shown  by  many  lead- 
ing men  in  the  South  to  demand  the  reopening  of  the  slave 
trade. 

While  the  country  was  agitated  by  these  various  questions, 


28  SLAVERY.  [1859. 

everybody  was  astonished  to  hear  that  a  company  of  Abolition- 
ists, under  the  lead  of  John  Brown,  had  taken  Harper's  Ferry, 
in  Virginia.  It  must  be  understood  that  the  name  Abolitionist 
was  at  that  time  a  term  of  reproach,  used  only  to  designate 
those  of  extreme  views  among  the  opponents  of  slavery — who 
believed  that  slavery  was  in  opposition  to  the  laws  of  God,  and 
that  they  were  not  morally  bound  to  obey  any  human  laws  which 
upheld  it.  They  therefore  refused  to  obey  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  and  did  all  they  could  to  aid  fugitive  slave ,  to  escape  by 
what  was  called  the  Underground  Railroad — that  is,  the  secret 
ways  in  which  slaves  were  carried  through  the  free  States  into 
Canada,  where  there  was  no  danger  of  their  capture.  Some 
even  went  into  the  Southern.  States  and  tried  to  incite  slaves  to 
rise  in  rebellion  against  their  masters  and  thus  secure  their  free- 
dom. The  greater  part  of  the  Northern  people,  even  of  those 
who  were  opposed  to  the  further  extension  of  slavery,  did  not 
accept  the  views  of  the  Abolitionists,  but  believed  in  obeying 
the  laws,  however  bad  they  might  be,  trusting  to  secure  their 
change  in  time. 

John  Brown  was  one  of  the  most  ardent  of  the  Abolitionists, 
and  when  the  struggle  between  the  pro-slavery  and  the  anti- 
slavery  men  began  in  Kansas,  he  went  there  with  the  express 
purpose  of  fighting  to  make  Kansas  a  free  State.  He  took  a 
prominent  part  in  the  struggle,  and  became  a  leader  of  the 
free-State  men  against  the  Border  Ruffians,  as  the  Missourians 
who  crossed  over  to  the  help  of  their  brethren  in  Kansas  were 
called.  Not  content  with  defending  Kansas  from  their  inroads, 
he  carried  the  war  into  Missouri,  and  aided  many  slaves  there 
to  escape  from  their  masters.  At  last  rewards  were  offered  for 
his  arrest  by  both  the  Governor  of  Missouri  and  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  Brown,  finding  that  his  course  was 
not  liked  by  many  of  the  free-State  men,  left  Kansas  and  went 
to  Canada,  taking  witli  him  twelve  negroes  whom  he  had  freed. 
In  July,  1859,  he  settled  with  several  of  his  Kansas  companions 
on  a  farm  near  Harper's  Ferry,  with  the  intention  of  stirring 
up  a  general  insurrection  among  the  Virginia  negroes.  He 
probably  chose  this  place  because  it  was  the  site  of  one  of  the 
largest  of  the  United  States  arsenals,  having  in  it  many  thousand 
rifles,  which  would  enable  him  to  arm  all  the  negroes  he  might 
free,  and  because  it  was  near  the  mountains,  with  which  he  was 


1859.] 


JOHN  BROWN'S  RAID. 


29 


familiar,  and  into  which  he  hoped  to  escape  when  he  had  armed 
his  forces. 

Brown  had  not  intended  to  make  the  attack  on  Harper's 
Ferry  until  October  24,  but  fearing  that  the  people  had  begun 
to  suspect  his  designs,  he  determined  to  strike  at  once.  With 
only  twenty-two  men,  seventeen  whites  and  five  blacks,  he 
entered  the  village  Sunday  night,  October  16,  about  ten 
o'clock,  and  took  possession  of  the  Armory  buildings,  which 
were  guarded  by  only 
three  watchmen.  The 
houses  of  many  of  the 
principal  citizens  were 
then  visited,  and  the 
whites  taken  as  hostages 
and  the  blacks  freed.  Had 
Brown  then  gone  into  the 
mountains  with  what  ne- 
groes he  had  collected,  lie 
might  have  escaped,  but 
it  is  supposed  that  he  ex- 
pected the  negroes  of  the 
surrounding  country  to 
rise  and  join  him.  This 
did  not  take  place,  and  by 
noon  of  the  next  day  all 
hope  of  his  getting  away 

_         _  John  Brown. 

was  gone. 

The  news  of  the  attack,  sent  by  telegraph,  stirred  up  a  wild 
alarm  all  over  the  South,  and  militia  from  the  neighboring 
country  flocked  to  Harper's  Ferry.  Soon  after  noon  of  Mon- 
day, Brown  and  his  party  were  surrounded,  and  an  attack  was 
made  on  the  Armory.  There  was  a  continuous  cracking  of 
rifles,  the  militia  having  posted  themselves  where  they  could 
shoot  at  the  Armory  windows,  and  Brown  and  his  men  defend- 
ing themselves  as  well  as  they  could.  Several  of  Brown's  men, 
including  his  two  sons,  having  been  killed  or  wounded,  and  the 
Armory  being  attacked  in  the  rear  as  well  as  in  front,  he  re- 
treated, with  the  few  men  he  had  left,  into  the  engine-house. 
When  night  came,  and  the  firing  had  ceased,  Brown  had  left 
only  three  unwounded  white  men  and  a  half-dozen  negroes  who 


30 


SLAVEBY. 


[1859. 


had  joined  him  from  the  neighborhood.  Around  them  were 
more  than  fifteen  hundred  militia  from  Virginia  and  Maryland, 
and  a  company  of  United  States  marines,  with  two  pieces  of 
cannon,  under  command  of  Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee,  afterward 
famous  as  General  Lee,  of  the  Confederate  Army.  More  troops 
were  all  the  time  arriving,  for  the  number  of  the  insurgents 
had  been  greatly  exaggerated  until  rumor  made  them  several 
hundred  strong. 

At  seven  o'clock  the  next  morning,  Tuesday,  October  18, 
the  marines  burst  open  the  door  of  the  engine-house,  using  a 
long  ladder  as  a  battering-ram,  rushed  in  amid  a  few  shots, 

which  wounded  several  of 
them,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
all  of  the  insurgents  who 
were  alive  were  prisoners. 
The  next  day  Brown,  who  was 
badly  wounded,  and  three  of 
his  white  companions,  were 
taken  to  Charlestown  jail. 
He  was  brought  to  trial,  Oc- 
tober 27,  for  conspiring  with 
negroes  to  produce  insurrec- 
tion, for  treason  against  Vir- 
ginia, and  for  murder;  was 
found  guilty  on  all  the 
charges,  and  was  hanged  at 
Charlestown,  Virginia  (now  West  Virginia),  December  2,  1859. 
During  all  the  time  between  his  capture  and  his  execution 
Brown  exhibited  the  utmost  calmness  and  firmness,  and  never 
complained  of  his  lot  nor  expressed  any  sorrow  for  what  he 
had  done.  His  conduct  won  the  praise  of  his  bitterest  enemies, 
who,  though  they  saw  nothing  to  commend  in  his  foolish  at- 
tempt, could  not  but  admire  the  coolness  and  bravery  with 
which  he  had  conducted  it.  Even  Governor  Wise,  of  Virginia, 
who  had  gone  to  Harper's  Ferry  at  the  news  of  the  attack,  after- 
ward said  in  a  speech  in  Eichmond:  "  Colonel  Washington  said 
that  Brown  was  the  coolest  man  he  ever  saw  in  defying  death 
and  danger.  With  one  son  dead  by  his  side,  and  another  shot 
through,  he  felt  the  pulse  of  his  dying  son  with  one  hand,  held 
his  rifle  with  the  other,  and  commanded  his  men  with  the  ut- 


Henry  A.  Wise. 


1859,] 


JOHN  BROWN'S  EXECUTION 


31 


most  composure,  encouraging  them  to  be  firm  and  to  sell  their 
lives  as  dearly  as  possible." 

When  Brown  reached  the  scaffold  his  bearing  was  as  firm  as 
ever,  and  he  met  his  death  with  the  same  defiant  spirit  with 
which  he  had  faced  his  enemies  in  the  field.  Though  most  peo- 
ple in  the  North  condemned  his  raid  as  the  act  of  a  fanatic, 
time  and  circumstances,  and  his  gallant  bearing  in  the  hour  of 
trial,  made  him  a  hero;  and  thus  it  happened  that  during  the 
Civil  War  his  name  was  used  to  denote  devotion  to  principle, 
strength  of  will,  and  brave  ;ind  persistent  daring,  and  that  the 
soldiers  of  the  Union  accepted  for  their  marching  song, 

"  John  Brown's  body  lies  a-mouldering  in  the  grave, 
But  his  soul  is  marching  on."* 

*  See  Appendix,  page  562. 


King  Cotton. 


CHAPTER  III. 

SECESSION. 

Division  of  the  Democratic  Party.— Stephen  A.  Douglas.— John  C.  Breckinridge.— Elec- 
tion of  Lincoln.— The  News  in  South  Carolina.— President  Buchanan.— The  Critten- 
den Compromise.— Secession  of  South  Carolina.— Scenes  in  Charleston.— The  Tomb 
of  Calhoun.— Secession  Bonnets.— Foreign  News.— Forts  Moultrie  and  Sumter.— 
Major  Anderson.— Removal  to  Sumter.— Raising  the  Flag.— United  States  Buildings 
Seized.— Major  Anderson  and  State  Rights.— The  Star  of  the  West.— Secession  of 
other  States.— John  a.  Dix  and  the  Flag.— The  Confederate  States.— Jefferson 
Davis.— Alexander  H.  Stephens.— The  Peace  Congress.— Twiggs's  Surrender.— Fort 
Pickens  Saved. 

THE  events  which  led  to  the  raid  of  John  Brown  had  stirred 
up  the  people  of  all  parts  of  the  country  on  the  slavery 
question,  and  finally  brought  about  a  change  in  political  par- 
ties. The  Democrats  split  into  two  parties.  In  their  conven- 
tion, held  in  Charleston  (1860),  the  Southern  Democrats 
demanded  that  the  party  should  accept  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
in  full  and  declare  that  neither  Congress  nor  the  territorial 
legislatures  had  a  right  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the  Territories. 
Most  of  the  Northern  Democrats,  under  the  lead  of  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  were  unwilling  to  go  so  far  as  this  or  to  give  up  the 
doctrine  of  Popular  Sovereignty,  and  a  bitter  struggle  ensued, 
in  which  the  Douglas  Democrats  were  finally  successful;  and 
the  convention  adopted  a  platform  declaring  that  the  Demo- 
cratic party  would  abide  by  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
The  Southern  Democrats  were  not  satisfied  with  this,  and  most 
of  them  left  the  convention.  The  remaining  members  of  the 
convention  finally  adjourned  to  Baltimore,  where  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  of  Illinois,  was  nominated  for  President.  The  dele- 
gates who  had  left  the  convention  afterward  nominated  John 
C.  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky.  Another  party,  which  had  begun 
in  1852  as  the  Know-Nothing  or  American  party,  but  which  now 
called  itself  the  Constitutional  Union  party,  nominated  John 
Bell,  of  Tennessee.  In  its  platform  it  avoided  the  slavery 
cpiestion  and  declared  its  principles  to  be  "the  Constitution  of 
the  Country,  the  Union  of  the  States,  and  the  Enforcement  of 
the  Laws."  The  Republican  party  nominated  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, of  Illinois.     In  its  platform  it  declared  that  "  the  normal 


I860.]  ELECTION  OF  LINCOLN.  33 

condition  of  all  the  territory  of  the  United  States  is  that  of 
freedom,"  and  denied  the  power  of  Congress  or  of  a  territorial 
legislature  to  give  legal  existence  to  slavery  in  any  Territory  of 
the  United  States. 

There  were  thus  four  political  parties  in  the  field:  the 
Douglas  Democrats,  who  wished  to  throw  the  decision  of  the 
slavery  question  on  the  Supreme  Court;  the  Breckinridge 
Democrats,  who  declared  that  slavery  should  be  carried  into  the 
Territories;  the  Constitutional  Union  party,  who  did  not  meet 
the  question  at  all,  but  evaded  it;  and  the  Republican  party, 
who  declared  that  slavery  should  not  be  carried  into  the  Terri- 
tories. The  Democratic  party  being  thus  divided,  the  Repub- 
licans were  successful  in  the  election,  and  Abraham  Lincoln 
became  President  of  the  United  States.  Thus  the  Free-Soil 
party,  which  in  1852  had  polled  only  156,149  votes,  had  risen  in 
1856  to  1,341,264  votes,  and  in  1860  had  polled  1,866,352  votes 
and  elected  its  candidate  for  President.  Lincoln  received  the 
electoral  votes  of  every  free  State  excepting  New  Jersey,  where 
he  received  four  votes  and  Douglas  three  votes.  Of  the  slave 
States,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  ehose  Bell  electors, 
Missouri  voted  for  Douglas,  and  all  the  remainder  for  Breckin- 
ridge. 

The  men  of  extreme  views  in  the  slave  States  claimed  that 
the  election  of  Lincoln,  though  strictly  according  to  the  forms 
of  the  Constitution,  was  a  purely  sectional  and  not  a  party  tri- 
umph; that  the  party  which  had  elected  him  was  the  enemy  of 
the  South  and  determined  to  override  it  and  its  institutions,  and 
that  there  was  no  longer  any  safety  for  the  South  in  the  Union. 
They  therefore  determined  to  withdraw  from  it.  South  Caro- 
lina was  the  first  State  to  act.  There  had  long  been  dissatisfac- 
tion in  this  State,  and  there  were  in  it  more  men  of  extreme 
views  than  in  any  other  of  the  slave-holding  States.  The  news 
of  Lincoln's  election  was  received  by  these  men  with  cheers  and 
congratulations,  because  it  gave  them  the  opportunity  to  with- 
draw from  the  Union,  which  they  had  so  ardently  wished  for. 
Some  of  the  more  moderate  men  proposed  to  wait  until  the 
other  States  could  be  consulted;  but  the  disunionists  saw  dan- 
ger in  delay,  and  urged  that  a  bold  step  taken  by  South  Carolina 
would  at  once  bring  over  to  their  side  all  the  other  slave-hold- 
ing States.     The  views  of  these  men  prevailed,  and  a  State 


34 


SECESSION. 


[1860. 


convention  was  called  to  meet  December  17,  to  consider  the 
question  of  secession. 

Meanwhile  the  government  at  Washington  acted  as  if  para- 
lyzed. President  Buchanan  had  been  elected  by  both  Northern 
and  Southern  Democrats;  his  cabinet  was  made  up  largely  of 
Southern  Democrats,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  government 
offices  were  filled  by  friends  of  the  South,  who  did  all  in.  their 
power  to  aid  the  disunionists  and  to  hinder  the  government. 
John  B.  Floyd,  of  Virginia,  the  Secretary  of  War,  had  sent  to 


Charleston  in  1861. 


Southern  arsenals  and  forts,  where  they  would  easily  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  disunionists,  more  than  a  hundred  thousand 
stands  of  small  arms  and  many  cannon.  Surrounded  by  such 
advisers,  President  Buchanan  did  not  know  what  to  do,  and 
though  he  took  a  stand  against  the  right  of  secession,  he  de- 
clared his  belief  that  Congress  could  not,  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, make  war  on  a  State,  and  he  did  not  feel  that  he  would  be 
justified  in  taking  means  to  compel  obedience  to  the  laws.  He 
did  not  even  dare  to  send  reinforcements  to  the  forts  along  the 
Southern  sea-coast,  lest  such  action  should  cause  a  conflict  with 
State  troops,  and  bring  on  a  civil  war.     At  last,  General  Lewis 


I860.] 


CHITTENDEN  COMPROMISE. 


35 


Cass,  his  Secretary  of  State,  resigned  because  the  President 
refused  to  send  aid  to  the  United  States  troops  holding  the 
forts  in  Charleston  harbor.  Thus  Mr.  Buchanan,  sincere  in 
his  love  for  the  Union,  but  too  weak  to  cut  loose  from  party 
ties  and  strike  a  blow  for  it,  as  Jackson  had  done  in  nullifica- 
tion times,  found  himself  deserted  by  his  best  advisers,  and  help- 
lessly allowed  events  to  take  their  own  course,  trusting  that  the 
remaining  few  weeks  of  his  administration  would  be  peaceful. 
In  Congress  all  parties,  excepting  the  disunionists,  set  to 
work  to  find  some  means  of  saving  the  Union,  and  several  plans 
were  proposed.  The  one  which  secured  most  favor  was  that 
called  the  Crittenden  Compromise,  so  called  from  the  name  of 


Secession  Hall,  Charleston. 


its  proposer,  John  J.  Crittenden,  United  States  Senator  from 
Kentucky.  This  provided  that  slavery  should  be  prohibited  in 
all  territory  north  of  36°  30',  the  old  Missouri  Compromise 
line,  and  should  be  recognized  and  never  interfered  with  south 
of  that  line.  But  the  Republicans  would  not  accept  this,  which 
was  directly  opposed  to  their  doctrine  of  free  Territories,  and 
those  who  favored  secession  did  not  want  any  compromise  of 
any  kind. 

Thus  all  attempts  at  conciliation  failed.  The  South  Caro- 
lina Senators  and  other  office-holders  resigned,  and  on  Decem- 
ber 20  the  State  Convention  passed  an  "ordinance  to  dissolve 
the  union  between  the  State  of  South  Carolina  and  other  States 


36 


SECESSION. 


[I860. 


united  with  her  in  the  compact  entitled  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  of  America." 

At  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  that  day,  the  Convention, 
which  had  held  its  meetings  in  St.  Andrew's  Hall,  Charles- 
ton, marched  in  procession  to  the  great  hall  of  the  South  Caro- 
lina Institute,  afterward  called  Secession  Hall,  to  sign  the 
Ordinance  of  Secession.  To  make  this  as  impressive  as  possi- 
ble, the  Governor  and  Legislature  of  the  State  and  many  cler- 
gymen and  other  prominent  citizens  were  invited  to  witness  it. 
On  each  side  of  the  platform  on  which  the  President  of  the 

Convention  sat  was  a  real  palmetto 
tree,  the  emblem  of  South  Caro- 
lina, and  behind  his  chair  was  hung 
a  painted  banner  representing  the 
destruction  of  the  Union  and  the 
rebuilding  of  a  new  Confederacy 
out  of  its  ruins.  At  the  base  of 
this  picture,  a  small  copy  of  which 
is  given  on  the  next  page,  is  a  pile 
of  blocks  of  stone,  some  of  them 
broken,  each  bearing  the  arms  of 
one  of  the  free  States,  while  rising 
above  it  is  a  beautiful  arch  bearing 
the  arms  of  the  fifteen  slave  States. 
South  Carolina  forms  the  key-stone, 
on  which  stands  Calhoun,  leaning 
against  the  trunk  of  a  palmetto 
tree.  On  his  right  is  a  figure  of 
Hope,  and  on  his  left  one  of  Faith; 
and  beyond  these,  on  each  side,  is  the  figure  of  an  Indian. 
Under  the  arch  is  the  palmetto  tree  with  a  rattlesnake  coiled 
round  its  trunk,  and  some  cotton  bales  and  other  emblems  of 
commerce  guarded  by  cannon.  When  all  the  members  had 
signed  the  Ordinance  of  Secession  the  President  arose,  and 
showing  it  to  the  people,  said,  "The  Ordinance  of  Secession 
has  been  signed  and  ratified,  and  I  proclaim  the  State  of  South 
Carolina  an  independent  commonwealth. "  The  audience  greeted 
the  announcement  with  cheers,  and  a  rush  was  made  for  the 
palmetto  trees,  every  leaf  of  which  was  stripped  off  as  a  memo- 
rial of  the  occasion. 


Palmetto  Tree. 


i860.] 


SECESSION  SCENES. 


37 


Secession  was  welcomed  throughout  the  city  by  the  firing 
of  salutes  and  the  ringing  of  church  bells,  and  Palmetto  flags 
were  hoisted  everywhere,  while  the  flag  of  the  Union  was 
nowhere  to  be  seen.    A  procession  of  men  marched  to  St.  Philip's 


Banner  op  the  Secession  Convention. 


church-yard,  and  forming  in  a  circle  round  the  tomb  of  Cal- 
houn, swore  that  they  would  devote  their  lives  and  their 
property  to  the  cause  of  independence.     Women  crowded  the 


38 


SECESSION. 


[I860. 


sidewalks,  wearing  secession  bonnets  made  of  black  and  wbite 
cotton,  decorated  with  ornaments  of  palmetto  trees  and  lone 
stars,  and  offered  their  sons  for  the  defence  of  the  new  nation, 
as  they  proudly  called  the  seceded  State.  As  if  South  Caro- 
lina had  already  taken  her  place  among  the  nations  of  the 
world,  the  Governor,  Mr.  Pickens,  was  authorized  to  appoint 
ambassadors  and  consuls  to  foreign  countries,  and  to  receive 
such  officers  from  abroad;  and  the  Charleston  newspapers  pub- 
lished intelligence  from  other  parts  of  the  United  States  under 
the  heading  of  "  Foreign  News." 

Secession  being  accomplished,  South  Carolina  sent  several 
commissioners  to  Washington  to  demand  the  surrender  of  the 
forts  and  other  government  property  in  the  State. 

Charleston  harbor  was  then  defended  by  three  forts,  Fort 
Moultrie,  on  Sullivan's  Island;  Castle  Pinckney,  on  an  island 

in  the  mouth  of  Cooper  River; 
and  Fort  Sumter,  on  an  arti- 
ficial island  in  the  narrowest 
part  of  the  harbor.  Colonel 
Gardner,  the  United  States 
officer  in  charge  of  these  forts, 
had  under  his  command  only 
about  eighty  men,  thirteen  of 
whom  were  musicians.  With 
these  he  occupied  Fort  Moul- 
trie, the  nearest  fort  to  the  city. 
He  bad  done  what  he  could  to 
put  this  into  a  state  of  defence; 
laborers  from  Charleston  had 
dug  away  the  sand  which  had 
nearly  covered  the  wall  toward  the  sea,  and  a  large  number  of 
masons  from  Baltimore  had  worked  hard  to  put  the  stone-work  in 
order,  but  in  spite  of  all  these  efforts  the  fort  was  still  very  weak, 
and  unfit  to  withstand  an  attack  from  the  land  side.  At  this 
time  the  whole  State  was  swarming  with  militia-men,  who  were 
drilling  and  getting  ready  for  war,  and  the  streets  of  Charles- 
ton were  full  of  people  wearing  secession  cockades.  Crowds 
came  every  day  to  look  at  the  work  going  on  at  Moultrie,  and 
once  they  formed  a  procession  and  marched  round  the  fort. 
Soon  after  this  Colonel  Gardner  was  relieved  of  the  command, 


Tomb  of  Calhoun. 


I860.] 


MOULTRIE  AND  SUMTER. 


39 


and  Major  Kobert  Anderson  was  sent  to  take  his  place  (Novem- 
ber 21).  Major  Anderson  was  a  native  of  Kentucky,  and  was 
at  this  time  fifty-five  years  old.  He  was  a  graduate  of  West 
Point,  and  had  served  in  the  Black-Hawk  War,  the  war  against 
the  Seminole  Indians  in  Florida,  and  in  the  Mexican  War,  under 
General  Scott. 

Major  Anderson  pushed  on  the  repairs  of  Moultrie  as  fast  as 
possible,  and  set  more  than  a  hundred  men  to  work  on  Sumter. 
This  fort,  built  on  an  island  made  of  large  blocks  of  stone,  stood 
at  the  edge  of  the  ship  channel  leading  into  the  harbor.  Its 
brick  walls,  which  rose  up  almost  directly  from  the  water,  had 
a  gloomy  look,  more  like  those  of  a  prison  than  a  fort.  It  was 
built  for  three  rows  of  guns,  two  in  casemates  and  one  in  bar- 
bette— that  is,  on  the  top  of  the  wall  and  uncovered.     The  fort 


Fort  Moultrie. 

had  never  been  finished,  and  was  at  that  time  much  out  of  re- 
pair. The  disunionists  were  very  glad  to  see  the  work  of 
restoration  going  on,  and  intended  to  take  possession  as  soon  as 
the  repairs  were  finished;  and  to  prevent  the  garrison  of  Fort 
Moultrie  from  occupying  it  they  kept  two  steamers  full  of  men 
on  guard  all  the  time  in  the  harbor.  Major  Anderson,  who  had 
made  up  his  mind  to  remove  to  Sumter,  because  he  knew  that 
he  could  not  hold  Moultrie  against  an  attack,  still  kept  men  at 
work  at  Moultrie  to  deceive  the  disunionists.  Even  his  own 
men  were  deceived,  for  he  told  only  two  or  three  officers  of  his 
plans. 

The  removal  took  place  on  the  night  of  December  26.  Three 
schooners  had  been  hired  to  carry  the  soldiers'  families  to  Fort 
Johnson,  an  old  fort  on  the  other  side  of  the  harbor.  There 
were  some  buildings  there  belonging  to  the  United  States,  and 
the  disunionists,  thinking  it  a  very  natural  proceeding  to  re- 
move the  families  before  the  expected  fight  took  place,  did  not 
oppose  it.  But  the  schooners  wrere  really  loaded  with  supplies 
for  the  troops   going  to  Fort  Sumter,  and  the  lieutenant  in 


40 


SECESSION. 


[1860. 


Secession  Cockade. 


command  was  ordered  to  land  them  there  as  soon  as  a  signal 
gun  was  fired.  As  soon  as  it  was  dark  enough,  half  of  the  sol- 
diers were  rowed  from  Moultrie  to  Sumter  in  boats,  passing 
the  guard-boats  without  molestation.  Most  of  the  workmen 
in  the  fort  were  disunionists,  and  a  crowd  of 
them,  wearing  secession  cockades  in  their  hats, 
rushed  to  the  landing  to  see  what  the  soldiers 
were  coming  for.  But  the  soldiers  drove 
them  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  inside  the 
fort,  seized  the  guard-room,  which  commanded 
the  entrance,  and  placed  sentinels.  The  boats 
were  then  sent  back  for  the  rest  of  the  men  in 
Moultrie,  and  on  their  arrival  the  signal  gun 
was  fired,  and  the  schooners  landed  the  stores. 
The  disloyal  workmen  were  then  put  on  board  the  schooners 
and  sent  to  the  mainland.  In  the  morning  the  soldiers  on  the 
walls  of  Sumter  were  seen  by  the  people  in  the  guard-boats,  and 
they  hastened  up  to  Charleston  and  told  the  authorities  that 
Sumter  had  been  reinforced  in  the  night.  This  made  a  great 
stir  in  the  city,  and  the  militia  were  at  once  summoned.  There 
being  no  guards  now  in  the  harbor,  Major  Anderson  sent  some 
men  over  to  Moultrie,  which  was  found  deserted,  the  people 

who  lived  in  Moultrieville,  the 
village  near  by,  not  having  yet 
discovered  that  the  soldiers  had 
gone.  The  men  set  fire  to  the  gun- 
carriages,  and  destroyed  all  the 
munitions  of  war  that  could  not 
be  brought  away,  and  returned 
safely  to  Sumter.  The  guns  in 
Moultrie  had  been  spiked  the  night 
before,  and  the  flag-staff  had  been 
cut  down. 

Major  Anderson  had  not  yet 
raised  his  flag  over  Sumter.  He 
was  a  very  religious  man,  and 
thinking  that  the  occasion  ought  to  be  observed  with  some  cere- 
mony, he  waited  until  the  chaplain  of  his  command,  Eev.  Mat- 
thias Harris,  who  lived  with  his  family  in  Moultrieville,  should 
arrive.     He  came  in  the  morning,  and  at  noon  the  troops  were 


Robert  Anderson. 


I860.] 


HOISTING   THE  FLAG. 


41 


drawn  up  on  the  parade  inside  the  fort,  near  the  great  Colum- 
biad,  the  band  played  "  The  Star-Spangled  Banner,"  and  after  a 
prayer  by  the  chaplain,  the  ensign  was  run  up  and  greeted  with 
three  hearty  cheers. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  two  South  Carolina  rifle 
companies  hoisted  the  Palmetto  flag  over  Castle  Pinckney,  and 
after  nightfall  some  artillery  companies  occupied  Fort  Moul- 
trie. On  the  next  day  the  United  States  Arsenal,  Custom 
House,  and  Post  Office  in  Charleston  were  seized  by  the  State 


The  Columbiad  on  the  Parade  in  Fort  Sumter. 

authorities.  As  the  cannons  in  Moultrie  had  been  made  use- 
less before  the  evacuation,  some  guns  and  gun-carriages  were 
sent  there  from  Castle  Pinckney,  and  men  were  set  at  work  to 
make  new  gun-carriages  to  take  the  place  of  those  burned. 
New  batteries  were  planned,  and  steamboats,  laden  with  war 
material,  frequently  passed  up  and  down  the  harbor  within 
range  of  the  guns  of  Sumter.  All  communication  with  the 
fort  was  cut  off,  and  Anderson  was  not  allowed  to  receive  his 
mail,  nor  to  send  to  the  city  for  fresh  provisions. 

Major  Anderson  could  easily  have  prevented  the  erection  of 
batteries  against  Sumter  and  could  have  kept  the  disunionists 
out  of  Moultrie,  but  his  orders  from  Washington  were  to  act 


42  SECESSION.  [1860. 

strictly  on  the  defensive  and  to  avoid  any  act  which  might  bring 
on  hostilities.  At  the  same  time  he  was  empowered,  in  case  he 
saw  any  evidence  of  an  attack  from  the  disunionists,  to  take 
possession  of  any  one  of  the  three  forts  he  might  deem  best  and 
to  defend  his  position  as  long  as  he  could.  It  was  in  pursu- 
ance of  these  orders  that  he  removed  from  Moultrie  to  Sumter. 
The  boldness  and  skill  with  which  the  change  was  made  won 
him  much  praise  from  all  the  friends  of  the  Union,  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Major  Anderson  was  a  brave  and  consci- 
entious soldier  who  did  what  he  believed  to  be  his  duty;  but  it 
has  since  been  shown  that  he  was  then  of  opinion  that  it  would 
be  impossible  to  restore  the  Union  by  arms,  and  that  if  his  own 
State  (Kentucky)  had  seceded  he  would  unhesitatingly  have 
given  his  sword  to  the  Confederacy  against  the  Union.  There 
are  some  who  have  cast  doubts  on  Major  Anderson's  loyalty,  but 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  he  shared  this  belief  with  thousands 
of  other  men — men  as  loyal  and  patriotic  as  any  of  those 
who  make  pretence  at  this  late  day  to  have  had  a  clear  insight 
into  the  future  even  in  the  dark  clays  which  preceded  the  strug- 
gle. Then  no  man  knew  whom  to  trust  or  whither  to  turn; 
and  even  the  rulers  of  the  people  were  doubtful  and  undecided. 
Major  Anderson,  a  firm  believer  in  State  Rights,  a  native  of  a 
slave  State  and  identified  with  another  through  his  wife,  who 
was  a  Georgian,  was  a  patriot  compared  with  many  of  those  who, 
safe  from  harm  at  a  distance  from  the  scene  of  conflict,  made 
louder  professions  of  loyalty.  His  position  was  a  very  trying 
one.  Many  of  his  friends  and  several  of  his  relatives  were  in 
arms  on  the  other  side,  and  even  joined  in  the  attack  on  Sum- 
ter. No  wonder  that  he  wrote  that  his  "heart  was  never  in 
the  war."  He  hoped  to  the  last  that  the  unholy  struggle  might 
be  prevented,  and  his  anxiety  coupled  with  his  earnest  efforts 
to  avoid  hostilities  are  believed  to  have  brought  on  the  disease 
which  ended  at  last  in  his  death. 

Major  Anderson  was  denounced  by  the  South  Carolina 
authorities  as  guilty  of  a  "gross  breach  of  faith,"  and  the  State 
commissioners  at  Washington  were  ordered  to  demand  that  the 
Federal  troops  should  be  withdrawn  from  Charleston  harbor. 
On  President  Buchanan's  refusing  to  accede  to  this,  Mr.  Floyd, 
the  Secretary  of  War,  resigned  (Dec.  29),  giving  Mr.  Buchanan's 
refusal  as  a  reason  for  his  action.     But  the  true  reason  of  his 


1860-'61.]  THE  STAB  OF  TEE  WEST.  43 

resignation  was  that  President  Buchanan  had  asked  him  to  re- 
sign several  days  before  (Dec.  23),  on  account  of  his  being 
mixed  up  in  an  attempt  to  defraud  the  government  in  taking  a 
large  amount  ($870,000)  of  bonds  and  using  them  for  illegal 
purposes.  It  has  been  thought  by  some  that  Mr.  Floyd  was 
loyal  up  to  this  time,  but  that  he  then  became  friendly  to  seces- 
sion. Two  clays  after  his  resignation,  Joseph  Holt,  of  Ken- 
tucky, then  Postmaster-General,  was  given  temporary  charge 
of  the  War  Department. 

As  soon  as  the  news  that  the  disunionists  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  the  United  States  property  in  Charleston  was  received, 
President  Buchanan  made  up  his  mind  to  reinforce  Sumter. 
For  this  purpose  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  had  stationed  early 
in  December  in  Hampton  Eoads  the  sloop-of-war  Brooklyn, 
Captain  Farragut,  and  it  was  now  determined  to  send  her  to 
Charleston  with  three  hundred  men  drawn  from  Fortress  Mon- 
roe. But  General  Scott,  fearful  that  this  would  weaken  too 
much  the  garrison  of  Fortress  Monroe,  which  was  of  more 
importance  than  Sumter,  persuaded  the  President  to  send,  in- 
stead of  the  Brooklyn,  a  merchant  steamer  called  the  Star  of  the 
West  from  New  York.  This  vessel,  with  two  hundred  and  fifty 
recruits,  some  ammunition,  and  supplies  on  board,  sailed  from 
New  York  on  the  afternoon  of  January  5. 

She  arrived  off  Charleston  early  in  the  morning  of  Wednes- 
day, the  9th,  but  information  of  her  sailing  had  been  telegraphed 
from  Washington  to  the  Charleston  authorities,  and  when  she 
tried  to  go  up  the  harbor  to  Fort  Sumter,  with  her  flag  flying, 
she  was  fired  upon  and  struck  twice  by  shots  from  a  battery  on 
Morris  Island,  and  seeing  that  she  could  not  reach  Sumter  she 
returned  to  New  York,  without  even  communicating  with  Major 
Anderson.  This  was  the  first  shot  fired  in  the  Civil  War, 
against  the  flag  of  the  Union. 

When  South  Carolina  thus  cut  her  connection  with  the 
Union,  the  people  of  the  other  Southern  States  were  by  no 
means  unanimous  on  the  question  of  secession.  A  large  part  of 
those  living  in  the  Cotton  States,  including  nearly  all  the  rich 
slave-holders,  were  in  favor  of  disunion;  but  there  were  many 
who,  while  believing  firmly  in  the  right  of  secession,  thought 
that  the  South  would  be  better  off  in  the  Union  than  out  of  it; 
and  there  were  also  some  who  were  for  the  Union  at  all  hazards, 


44 


SECESSION. 


1861.] 


and  who  did  not  believe  that  a  State  had  the  right  to  secede. 
In  the  Border  States  a  large  part  of  the  people  were  Unionists. 
Some  of  these  were  moved  by  love  for  the  Union  and  for  the 
government  which  their  fathers  had  helped  to  build  up  and  to 
defend;  others  by  policy,  for  they  saw  that  if  war  should  break 
out  it  would  be  waged  on  their  soil,  and  they  would  be  the 
greatest  sufferers.  They  were  therefore  for  peace,  and  they  dis- 
liked the  act  of  South  Carolina,  whose  geographical  situation 
made  her  territory  comparatively  safe.  But  there  were  also, 
even  in  these  States,  a  considerable  body  of  disunionists,  many 
of  whom  afterward  gave  their  lives  for  the  Confederate  cause. 

In  the  Cotton  States  the  act  of  South  Carolina  had  its  ex- 
j>ected  effect.     Though  there  was  at  first  some  opposition  to 

following  her  example,  the  Un- 
ionists were  overawed  by  the 
superior  numbers  and  organiza- 
tion of  the  friends  of  secession. 
During  the  month  of  January, 
1861,  the  arsenals,  forts,  and 
custom-houses  of  the  United 
States  were  taken  possession  of  by 
the  authorities  of  the  several 
States,  and  by  the  first  of  Febru- 
ary ordinances  of  secession  had 
been  passed  by  six  other  States, 
in  the  following  order:  Missis- 
sippi, Florida,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  and  Texas. 

"While  the  secession  convention  was  in  session  in  New 
Orleans,  an  event  occurred  which  stirred  the  hearts  of  loyal  peo- 
ple throughout  the  Union.  John  A.  Dix,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  had  sent  an  agent  South  to  try  to  save  the  revenue 
cutters  from  being  seized  by  the  State  authorities.  Captain 
Breshwood,  of  the  cutter  Eobert  McClelland,  then  at  New  Or- 
leans, was  ordered  to  take  his  vessel  to  New  York,  but  refused 
to  obey.  The  agent  telegraphed  his  refusal  to  Washington,  and 
Secretary  Dix  at  once  telegraphed  an  order  for  his  arrest  and 
for  the  lieutenant  to  take  command  of  the  cutter,  closing  his 
despatch  with  these  words:  "  If  anyone  attempts  to  haul  down 
the  American  flag,  shoot  him  on  the  spot."  The  secessionists 
in  New  Orleans  would  not  let  the  telegram  pass,  and  the  cutter 


John  A.  Dix. 


1861.] 


THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES. 


45 


Dix  Medal. 


was  lost,  but  the  despatch  was  printed  in  all  the  newspapers  of 
the  free  States,  and  a  medal  in  honor  of  the  event  was  struck 
by  friends  of  the  Union.  In  this  medal,  which  is  of  the  exact 
size  of  the  picture,  the  words  of  the  despatch  are  not  quoted 
quite  right.  After  the  capture  of  New  Orleans  the  old  flag  of 
the  McClelland  and  the  secession  flag  which  was  hoisted  in  its 
place  were  sent  to  General  Dix- by  General  Butler. 

While  the  disunionists  were  thus  setting  up  governments  in 
opposition  to  the  Federal  government  and  possessing  themselves 
of  the  United  States  property  within  their  States,  nothing  was 
done  in  Washington  to  stem  the 
tide.  President  Buchanan,  who 
felt  powerless  to  act,  only  awaited 
events,  while  Congress  uselessly 
debated  the  slavery  question  and 
Avasted  time  in  seeking  a  cure  for 
what  was  already  past  cure.  But 
before  judging  them  we  must  remember  that  the  best  men  in 
the  country  would  not  then  believe  in  the  possibility  of  war, 
and,  shocked  at  the  bare  thought  of  a  struggle  which  must  array 
brother  against  brother,  still  lingered  in  hope  that  the  shedding 
of  blood  might  be  avoided. 

But  the  disunionists  were  in  dread  earnest,  and  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  anything  would  have  then  turned  them  from  their  pur- 
pose. A  convention  of  delegates  from  the  seceded  States  met 
in  the  State  House  in  Montgomery,  Alabama,  February  4, 1861, 
and  formed  a  government  called  the  Confederate  States  of 
America.  A  Constitution  similar  to  that  of  the  United  States, 
excepting  that  it  recognized  slavery,  forbade  protective  tariffs, 
and  made  the  Presidential  term  six  years  instead  of  four,  was 
formed,  and  Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  was  chosen  Presi- 
dent, and  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  Vice-President, 
to  act  until  an  election  could  be  held.  This  Constitution  was 
afterward  adopted  by  the  seceded  States,  and  in  the  following 
November,  at  a  general  election,  Davis  and  Stephens  were  elected 
President  and  Vice-President  of  the  Confederate  States  for  six 
years.  Mr.  Stephens  was  a  member  of  the  Congress  which  chose 
him,  and  took  the  oath  of  office  at  once.  Mr.  Davis  was  absent 
in  Mississippi  at  the  time,  but  went  to  Montgomery  on  receiv- 
ing the  news,  and  was  inaugurated  there  February  18. 


46 


SECESSION. 


[1861. 


Jefferson  Davis  was  at  that  time  fifty-three  years  old.  He 
was  born  in  Kentucky,  but  while  he  was  still  an  infant  his 
father  removed  to  Mississippi.  After  an  academical  education, 
Jefferson  became  a  student  in  Transylvania  University,  in  Lex- 
ington, Kentucky,  but  when  sixteen  years  old  he  received  the 
appointment  of  a  cadet  in  the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point. 
He  was  graduated  there  in  1828,  and  afterward  served  in  the 
army,  both  in  the  infantry  and  cavalry,  until  1835,  when  he  re- 
signed and  became  a  cotton  planter  in  Mississippi.  About  that 
time  he  married  the  daughter  of  Colonel  Zachary  Taylor,  after- 
ward -President  of  the  United  States.     For  several  years  Mr. 


„.,.     lti  ;*§i 


State  House,  Montgomery. 

Davis  lived  a  quiet  life,  taking  but  little  part  in  political  ques- 
tions, but  in  1845  he  was  elected  by  the  Democrats  to  Con- 
gress, where  he  soon  made  his  mark  as  an  able  debater,  and  took 
a  prominent  part  in  the  discussion  of  questions  relating  to  the 
war  with  Mexico.  When  the  war  began  he  was  chosen  colonel 
of  the  first  regiment  of  Mississippi  riflemen,  in  command  of 
which  he  won  distinction  at  Monterey  and  Buena  Vista.  The 
next  year  (1847),  the  time  of  the  enlistment  of  the  regiment 
having  expired,  he  returned  home,  and  was  appointed  United 
States  Senator  from  Mississippi.  This  position  he  held  until 
1851,  when  he  resigned  on  account  of  his  nomination  for  Gov- 


1861.] 


DAVIS  AND  STEPHENS. 


47 


ernor  of  Mississippi,  but  he  was  defeated  in  the  election.  When 
Franklin  Pierce  became  President  he  appointed  Mr.  Davis  his 
Secretary  of  War,  in  which  office  he  showed  great  ability,  and 
was  very  popular  with  the  army.  Under  President  Buchanan 
he  again  entered  the  United  States  Senate,  and  took  a  promi- 
nent part  until  his  resignation,  January  21, 1861,  when  he  made 
a  farewell  speech,  and  returned  to  Mississippi  to  take  part  with 
his  State  in  the  war  against  the  Union.  Soon  afterward  Mr. 
Davis  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  militia  of  Mis- 
sissippi, with  the  rank  of  major-general,  and  he  was  occupied 


Jefferson  Davis. 


Alexander  H.  Stephens. 


with  the  duties  of  that  position  when  called  to  the  Presidency 
of  the  Confederate  States. 

Alexander  Hamilton  Stephens,  who  was  chosen  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  Confederacy,  was  then  forty-nine  years  old.  He  was 
a  lawyer,  and  prominent  in  politics  in  his  native  State,  and  had 
served  several  terms  in  Congress.  He  strongly  opposed  seces- 
sion in  1860,  but  when  Georgia  followed  South  Carolina,  he  did 
all  he  could  to  aid  it. 

While  the  disunionists  were  thus  maturing  their  plans  and 
preparing  for  war,  a  Peace  Congress  had  been  in  session  at 
Washington,  trying  to  settle  upon  some  plan  of  conciliation  by 
which  peace  might  be  assured  and  the  Union  preserved.  This 
Congress  had  been  called  together  at  the  invitation  of  the  Legis- 
lature of  Virginia,  and  Avas  made  up  of  delegates  from  thirteen 


48 


SECESSION. 


[1861. 


free  States  and  seven  slave  States  (Delaware,  Maryland,  Vir- 
ginia, North   Carolina,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri), 
the  latter  being,  with  the  exception  of  Arkansas,  all  the  slave 
States  which  had  not  joined  in  secession.     It  was  presided  over 
by  ex-President  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia.     Eesolutions  yielding 
to  some  of  the  demands  of  the  South  were  adopted  by  it  and  re- 
ported to  Congress,  but  the  effort  ended  in  failure.    Meanwhile 
Brigadier-General  Twiggs,  in  command  of 
the  Department  of  Texas,  surrendered  his 
whole   army,   with    all    the  fortifications, 
arms,  equipments,  and  other  United  States 
property  in  Texas,  into  the  hands  of  the  dis- 
unionists.     Twiggs  was  dismissed  from  the 
army,  March  1,  and  soon  after  entered  the 
service   of  the   Confederate    States.     The 
disunionists  had  now  in  their  possession 
nearly  all  the  forts   and   arsenals   in   the 
Southern  States,  the  principal   exceptions 
being  Fortress  Monroe  in  Virginia,   Fort 
Sumter  in  South  Carolina,  Fort  Pickens  in 
Florida,  and  the  forts    on  Key  West  and 
the  Tortugas,  off  the  coast  of  Florida.  Fort 
Pickens  was  saved  to  the  Union  through 
the  foresight  and   bravery   of  Lieiitenant 
Adam  Slemmer.     The  map  shows  the  situ- 
ation of  Pensacola  and  the  United  States 
Navy  Yard,  and  the  forts  defending  them. 
Pensacola  is  a  small  place  on  the  northwest 
side  of  the  bay  of  the  same  name,  about  ten 
miles  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.     The  bay  forms  a  fine  harbor, 
deep  enough  for  the  largest  vessels,  and  important  as  the  site 
of  the  Pensacola   Navy  Yard,   seven  miles  below  the  town. 
Close  to  the  Navy  Yard  are  the  villages  of  Woolsey  and  War- 
rington, where  most  of  the  employees  lived.     Below,  near  the 
lighthouse,  stands  an  old  Spanish  fort  named  San  Carlos  de 
.  Barrancas,   but  commonly  called  simply  Barrancas.     The  en- 
trance of  the  bay,  which  is  about  a  mile  wide,  is  defended  by 
Fort  McEee  on  the  west  and  Fort  Pickens  on  the  east  side. 
The  Navy  Yard  and  Fort  Barrancas  were  seized  (January  12) 
by  Southern  troops.     Lieutenant  Slemmer,  who  was  in  Fort 


1  JEFMMlS.Prest 
I  :AHisTEEHENS,ViceS6*j 


Confederate  Rosette 
and  Badge. 


1861.] 


FORT  PICKENS. 


49 


McRee  with  between  seventy  and  eighty  men,  crossed  over  with 
his  force  and  took  possession  of  Fort  Pickens,  on  the  western 
end  of  Santa  Rosa  Island, 
which  could  be  more  easily 
easily  defended  than 
forts  on  the  mainland, 
was  soon  besieged  by  Flor- 
ida, Alabama,  and  Missis- 
sippi troops,  but  reinforce- 
ments and  provisions  were 
sent  to  him  by  sea  in  time 
to  save  the  fort,  which  never 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Confederates. 

The  Harper's  Ferry  Ar- 
senal and  the  Gosport  Navy 
Yard  were  still  in  possession 
of   the  United  States,  but 
they 
soon 
had    to 
be  aban- 
doned. 
It  is  es- 
timated 
that  the 
d  i  s  u  n- 
ionists 
had  ob- 
tained up  to  this  time  over  forty  million  dollars'  (140,000,000) 
worth  of  United  States  property. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SUMTER. 

Inauguration  op  Lincoln.— His  Early  Life.— Lincoln  and  Douglas.— Peace  or  War  ?— The 
Cabinet.— The  Sjtars  and  Bars.— The  Confederate  Commissioners.— Secretary  Blair's 
Opinion.— Secretary  Seward  and  the  Wayward  States.— Captain  Fox.— The  Attempt 
to  Provision  Sumter. — General  Beauregard.— The  First  Shot  against  Sumter.— The 
Civil  War  Begun.— Anderson  and  his  Men.— The  Barracks  on  FntE.—  Making  Car- 
tridges.—Knocked  Down  Temporarily.— Flames  and  Smoke.— The  Flag  Hit.— The  Sur- 
render.—Salute  to  the  Flag. — Yankee  Doodle. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  took  the  oath  of  office,  as  sixteenth 
President  of  the  United  States,  March  4,  1861.  The 
new  President  was  in  every  way  a  man  of  the  people.  He  was 
born  in  Kentucky,  of  poor,  unlearned  parents,  his  father  being 
able  neither  to  read  nor  to  write.  When  Abraham  was  seven 
years  old  the  family  left  Kentucky,  floating  down  the  Ohio  on 
a  raft,  and  built  a  log  cabin  in  the  forests  of  Indiana,  then  but 
thinly  settled.  When  a  boy  he  did  general  farm-work,  and 
only  had  one  year's  schooling,  but  be  read  diligently  all  the 
books  he  could  get,  and,  being  naturally  quick  and  intelligent, 
soon  became  unusually  well  informed  for  one  in  his  position. 
As  he  grew  up  he  became  noted  for  wit  and  shrewdness,  and 
for  his  great  strength  and  agility,  and  there  were  few  at  the 
farmers'  gatherings  who  could  wrestle  with  him.  When  of  age, 
he  was  six  feet  and  four  inches  high.  In  1830  the  family  re- 
moved to  Illinois,  on  the  Sangamon  River,  where  Abraham 
helped  to  build  a  log  cabin  for  their  home,  to  clear  the  land, 
and  to  split  rails  to  fence  it.  He  afterward  engaged  in  various 
occupations,  and  was  by  turns  a  flat-boatman,  a  clerk  in  a 
country  store,  captain  of  a  company  in  the  Black-Hawk  War, 
a  partner  in  a  store,  and  a  surveyor.  In  1834  he  was  elected  as 
a  Whig  to  the  Illinois  Legislature,  where  he  served  four  terms. 
His  ready  command  of  language,  his  homely  and  forcible  ideas, 
the  earnestness  of  his  convictions,  and  his  knowledge  of  the 
people  gained  by  his  intimate  relations  with  all  classes,  made 
him  a  by  no  means  unequal  match  for  the  few  educated  men 
whom  he  met  in  debate.     Meantime  he  had  been  admitted  to 


1861.] 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS. 


51 


the  bar,  and  had  opened  an  office  in  Springfield,  where  he  be- 
came noted  as  a  successful  jury  lawyer. 

In  1846  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  to  Congress,  but  he  did 
nothing  there  to  distinguish  himself.  He  declined  to  be  a  can- 
didate for  re-election,  and  for  a  few  years  afterward  paid  more 
attention  to  his  business  than  to  politics,  though  in  1849  he  was 
an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  United  States  Senator.  In  1854, 
when  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  repealed  by  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Act,  he  again  took  part  in  politics,  and  soon  became 
the  leader  of  the  Anti-Nebraska  Whigs  in  the  State.  At  one 
time  (October  4),  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  the  father  of  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill,  made  a  speech  in  Springfield  in  defence  of  his 
course  in  the  Senate.  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  to  him  in  one  of  the 
best  speeches  of  his  life,  and  from  that  time  people  looked  upon 


Lincoln's  Home,  Springfield. 

him  as  a  rising  man.  He  had  often  met  in  debate  with  Mr. 
Douglas,  who  was  deemed  so  able  that  he  was  called  the  "  Little 
Giant,"  but  never  before  so  successfully;  and  in  1858  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  nominated  for  the  United  States  Senate,  against  Mr. 
Douglas,  who  was  a  candidate  for  re-election.  Lincoln  chal- 
lenged Douglas  to  debate  with  him  the  subjects  at  issue,  and  the 
two  spoke  together  at  different  places  seven  times,  the  principal 
question  being  the  right  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the 
Territories.  Though  Douglas  was  successful  in  the  contest, 
Lincoln  made  such  a  reputation  that  he  came  to  be  looked  upon 
all  over  the  country  as  one  of  the  strongest  upholders  of  Ke- 
publican  principles;  and  it  finally  led  to  his  nomination  and 
election  to  the  Presidency  in  1860. 

In  his  inaugural  address,  Mr.  Lincoln  took  the  ground  that 


52  SUMTER.  [1861. 

"  no  State,  upon  its  own  mere  motion,  can  lawfully  get  out  of 
the  Union;  that  resolves  and  ordinances  to  that  effect  are  legally 
void;  and  that  acts  of  violence  within  any  State  or  States 
against  the  authority  of  the  United  States  are  insurrectionary 
or  revolutionary,  according  to  circumstances.  I  therefore 
consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  the 
Union  is  unbroken,  and,  to  the  extent  of  my  ability,  I  shall  take 
care,  as  the  Constitution  itself  expressly  enjoins  upon  me,  that 
the  laws  of  the  Union  shall  be  faithfully  executed  in  all  the 
States.  ...  I  trust  this  will  not  be  regarded  as  a  menace, 
but  only  as  the  declared  purpose  of  the  Union  that  it  will  con- 
stitutionally defend  and  maintain  itself.     In  doing  this  there 

need  be  no  bloodshed  or  vio- 
lence, and  there  shall  be  none 
unless  it  is  forced  upon  the 
national  authority.  The  power 
confided  to  me  will  be  used  to 
hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the 
property  and  places  belonging 
to  the  government,  and  collect 
the  duties  and  imposts;  but 
beyond  what  may  be  necessary 
Sp  for  these  objects  there  will  be 
no  invasion,  no  using  of  force 
against  or  among  the  people 
anywhere." 

ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  rj^      .^^      ^       ^j^ 

differently  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  In  the  free  States 
and  in  some  of  the  Border  States  it  was  generally  regarded  as 
frank  and  firm,  yet  peaceful  in  its  tone,  and  most  peojde  drew 
from  it  the  conclusion  that  if  trouble  should  ensue  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  not  be  the  aggressor.  In  the  seceded  States,  and  among 
the  disunionists  generally,  it  was  considered  war-like,  and  the 
friends  of  secession  in  the  slave  States  which  had  not  yet  openly 
taken  part  against  the  Union  felt  that  the  time  for  action  had 
at  last  come. 

President  Lincoln  at  once  set  about  his  duties.  He  formed 
his  Cabinet  as  follows:  Secretary  of  State,  William  H.  Seward, 
of  New  York;  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  of 
Ohio;    Secretary  of  War,   Simon  Cameron,  of  Pennsylvania; 


1861.]  PEACE  OB   WAR?  53 

Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Gideon  Welles,  of  Connecticut;  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior,  Caleb  B.  Smith,  of  Indiana;  Postmaster- 
General,  Montgomery  Blair,  of  Maryland;  Attorney-General, 
Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri.  Never  before  in  the  history  of  our 
country  had  any  administration  succeeded  to  the  government 
when  "affairs  seemed  so  desperate.  Seven  States  had  seceded, 
and  others  were  preparing  to  follow.  The  government  was 
almost  without  resources:  the  treasury  was  without  money,  the 
few  soldiers  of  the  army  were  scattered  in  distant  forts,  and  the 
few  ships  of  the  navy  were  in  foreign  seas.  Most  of  the  forts 
along  the  Southern  seacoast  were  in  the  hands  of  the  disunion- 
ists;  large  quantities  of  arms  and  ammunition  had  been  sent 
from  Northern  arsenals  into  the  Southern  States,  where  they 
had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemies  of  the  government,  and 
many  of  the  best  officers  of  the  army  and  the  navy  had  resigned 
their  commissions  and  gone  with  their  States.  On  the  very  day 
when  Mr.  Lincoln  took  the  oath  of  office  at  Washington,  the 
new  Confederate  government  at  Montgomery  adopted  a  new 
flag — the  "  Stars  and  Bars,"  as  it  was  afterward  called — troops 
were  drilling  and  making  ready  for  war  in  nearly  every  Southern 
State,  and  Washington  itself  was  threatened.  Yet  the  North 
was  still  divided  in  opinion,  and  many  thought  that  the  South 
might  still  be  won  back  to  the  Union.  There  was  some  ground 
for  this  opinion,  for  the  disunionists  were  not  yet  strong  enough 
in  the  other  States  to  carry  them  over  to  the  Confederacy,  and 
in  several  of  them  a  popular  vote  had  shown  a  Union  majority. 
Even  President  Lincoln  and  his  counsellors  hoped  that  war 
might  still  be  averted;  but  their  hopes  were  soon  to  be  rudely 
dispelled. 

The  first  question  which  President  Lincoln  had  to  decide 
was  that  of  reinforcing  Sumter.  President  Davis  had  sent  some 
commissioners  to  Washington  to  settle  questions  growing  out  of 
the  secession  of  the  Confederate  States.  Mr.  Lincoln  refused 
to  recognize  them  in  any  other  way  than  as  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  but  they  were  told  that  Governor  Pickens  should 
be  informed  before  any  attempt  was  made  to  supply  the  fort. 
Major  Anderson  had  written  a  letter  saying  that  it  would  take 
twenty  thousand  men  to  reinforce  him;  General  Scott  agreed 
with  him,  and  believed  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  hold 
Sumter.     But  Mr.  Blair,  the  Postmaster-General,  said  that  to 


54 


SUMTER. 


[1861. 


give  it  up  without  an  effort  to  hold  it  would  demoralize  the 
North,  and  certainly  lead  to  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  His 
father  had  been  a  friend  of  General  Jackson's,  and  had  aided 
him  in  putting  down  secession  in  1832;  and  he  believed  that  if 
the  government  should  act  as  energetically  as  Jackson  had  done, 
the  new  attempt  might  also  be  crushed.  Mr.  Seward  dis- 
agreed with  him,  and  thought  that  all  the  forts  should  be  given 
up  without  a  struggle.  He  believed  that  it  was  best  to  "let 
the  wayward  States  go  in  peace,"  and  to  seek  to  bring  about  a 
reunion  through  a  convention  of  all  the  States.     The  rest  of  the 

members  of  the  Cabinet  finally 
agreed  with  Mr.  Seward  that  the 
fort  should  be  given  up. 

But  Mr.  Blair  still  believed 
that  Sumter  should  and  could  be 
reinforced  by  means  of  ships,  and 
he  sent  for  his  brother-in-law, 
Captain  G.  V.  Fox,  who  had  pro- 
posed to  President  Buchanan  a 
plan  for  relieving  Sumter.  Mr. 
Fox  explained  to  Mr.  Lincoln  his 
plan,  which  was  to  go  in  some 
ships  to  the  entrance  of  Charles- 
ton harbor,  and  to  send  in  the 
provisions  in  armed  launches,  or 
small  boats,  manned  by  sailors,  and  the  President  finally  agreed 
to  let  him  try  to  carry  provisions  to  the  fort.  The  ships-of-war 
Powhatan,  Pocahontas,  and  Pawnee,  the  steamer  Baltic,  the 
revenue-cutter  Harriet  Lane,  and  some  tug-boats  were  made 
ready,  and  the  expedition  sailed  for  Charleston  early  in  April, 
1861.  But  at  the  last  moment,  unknown  to  Mr.  Fox,  the 
Powhatan  had  been  ordered  to  sail  for  Fort  Pickens  instead  of 
Fort  Sumter,  and  as  she  had  on  board  the  launches  and  most  of 
the  sailors,  the  expedition  failed.  This  change  of  orders  was 
spoken  of  by  the  President  as  "an  accident,"  but  it  was  really 
due  to  the  interference  of  Mr.  Seward,  who  was  opposed  to  send- 
ing provisions  to  the  fort.  Mr.  Fox  was  much  annoyed  at  the 
failure,  but  the  energy  which  he  showed  in  trying  to  make  the 
expedition  a  success  led  to  his  appointment  as  Assistant  Secre- 
tary of  the  Navy,  an  office  which  he  held  through  the  war. 


William  H.  Seward. 


1861.] 


ANDERSON  AND  BE  A  UREGARD. 


55 


The  Confederates  meanwhile  had  not  been  idle.  A  large 
number  of  troops  from  the  different  Southern  States  had  been 
assembled  at  Charleston,  and  put  under  the  command  of  Gen- 
eral P.  G.  T.  Beauregard,  formerly  a  major  of  engineers  in  the 
United  States  army,  but  who  had  joined  the  Confederate  ser- 
vice when  his  State  (Louisiana)  seceded,  and  had  received  the 
rank  of  colonel  of  engineers.  On  his  arrival  in  Charleston,  he 
had  at  once  strengthened  the  fortifications,  and  built  new  bat- 
teries bearing  upon  Sumter.  President  Lincoln  had  kept 
his  promise,  and  had  sent  word  to  Governor  Pickens  of  the  in- 
tention to  provision  Fort  Sumter.  As  soon  as  this  was  known, 
General  Beauregard  telegraphed  to  Mr.  Walker,  the  Confederate 
Secretary  of  War,  at  Mont- 
gomery, for  orders.  Mr.  Wal- 
ker ordered  General  Beaure- 
gard to  demand  the  surren- 
der of  the  fort,  and  if  refused, 
to  take  it  by  force.  General 
Beauregard  sent  two  officers 
(April  11)  to  Major  Ander- 
son, demanding  the  evacua- 
tion of  the  fort.  Major  An- 
derson replied :  "  I  have  the 
honor  to  acknowledge  the 
receipt  of  your  communica- 
tion demanding  the  evacua- 
tion of  this  fort;  and  to  say 
in  reply  thereto  that  my  sense  of  honor  and  of  my  obligations 
to  my  Government  prevent  my  compliance." 

In  his  conversation  with  the  officers,  Major  Anderson  had  re- 
marked that  he  would  be  starved  out  in  a  few  days,  and  would 
have  to  evacuate.  General  Beauregard  thought  it  best  to  tele- 
graph to  Mr.  Walker  for  further  instructions,  and,  in  pursuance 
of  orders  received,  again  sent,  on  the  night  of  April  11,  a  mes- 
sage to  Major  Anderson  to  the  effect  that  if  he  would  state  the 
time  when  he  would  evacuate  Sumter,  he  would  not  open  fire 
upon  him.  Major  Anderson  replied  as  follows:  "  I  will,  if  pro- 
vided with  the  proper  and  necessary  means  of  transportation, 
evacuate  Fort  Sumter  by  noon  on  the  15th  instant,  should  I 
not  receive,  prior  to  that  time,  controlling  instructions  from  my 
Government,  or  additional  supplies." 


P.  G.  T.  Beauregard. 


56 


SUMTER. 


[1861. 


This  was  unsatisfactory,  because  General  Beauregard  knew 
that  the  fleet  was  then  on  its  way  to  relieve  the  fort.  General 
Anderson  was  therefore  notified  that  fire  would  be  opened  on 
Fort  Sumter  in  one  hour  from  that  time  (3:20  A.M.,  Friday, 
April  12).  At  half-past  four  o'clock  a  signal  shell  was  fired 
from  the  mortar  battery  at  Fort  Johnson,  on  James's  Island. 
The  shell  exploded  high  in  the  air  above  Fort  Sumter,  and  it 
was  at  once  followed  by  a  shot  from  the  Cumming's  Point  Bat- 
tery, which  buried  itself  deep  in  the  masonry  of  the  wall.  This, 
the  first  hostile  shot,  is  said  to  have  been  fired  by  Fdmund  Kuffin, 
an  old  Virginia  gentleman,  whose  long  white  locks  fell  over  his 
shoulders.     He  was  a  firm  believer  in  secession,  and  had  begged 

the  privilege  of  firing  the 
first  shot  against  Sumter.  In 
18G5,  when  the  last  hope  of 
the  Confederacy  was  gone, 
and  he  was  more  than  sev- 
enty years  old,  he  commit- 
ted suicide  by  shooting  him- 
self with  a  gun,  saying  in  a 
note  which  he  left,  "I  can- 
not survive  the  liberties  of 
my  country."  His  shot  was 
followed  by  shot  and  shell 
from  Moultrie  and  the  other 
batteries,  until  the  firing  be- 
came almost  a  continuous  roar.     The  Civil  War  had  begun. 

The  situation  of  Charleston  harbor  and  the  forts  and  batter- 
ies by  which  it  was  then  defended  will  be  best  understood  from 
the  map.  It  will  be  seen  that  Fort  Sumter  lies  in  the  mouth 
of  the  harbor,  about  three  and  a  half  miles  from  Charleston, 
and  nearly  in  the  middle  of  a  line  drawn  east  and  west  between 
Forts  Moultrie  and  Johnson,  each  of  which  are  distant  about 
a  mile  from  Sumter.  The  Cumming's  Point  Battery,  on 
Morris  Island,  is  about  two  thirds  of  a  mile  nearly  south  of  it. 
A  floating  battery,  made  of  logs  covered  with  railroad  iron,  was 
moored  a  little  north  of  Fort  Johnson,  and  several  other  bat- 
teries were  built  at  different  places,  some  against  Sumter,  and 
some  to  guard  the  entrance  of  the  harbor.  Though  a  strong 
fortification,  Sumter  was  intended  only  to  keep  ships  from 


Edmund  Ruffin. 


1861.] 


CHARLESTON  AND  ITS  HARBOR. 


57 


AND 

VICIOTTT 


FORT  SUMTER 


Charleston  and  its  Harboe  in  1861. 


58 


SUMTER. 


[1861. 


passing  into  the  harbor  from  the  ocean,  and  was  not  calculated  to 
resist  batteries  from  the  land  firing  at  short  range.  But  now 
more  than  fifty  of  the  heaviest  siege-guns  then  known  were 
raining  shot  and  shell  upon  it.  The  crash  against  the  walls 
was  terrific,  and  many  shells  burst  over  and  some  in  the  fort, 
tearing  up  the  parade-ground  with  the  noise  and  force  of  an 
earthquake. 

Major  Anderson  had  made  ready  for  the  expected  bombard- 
ment, but  being  out  of  oil  and  candles  could  not  see  to  sight  the 
guns  until  daybreak.  He  therefore  ordered  the  men  not  to 
leave  the  bomb-proofs  until  the  drum  beat  the  call.  After 
breakfast,  the  officers  and  men  were  divided  into  three  parties 
to  take  turns  in  working  the  guns,  for  there  were  so  few  of  them 
that  they  had  to  husband  their  strength.     Fire  was  opened  on 


Floating  Battery. 

Cumming's  Point  and  Moultrie  about  seven  o'clock,  when  the 
Confederate  batteries  had  been  at  work  more  than  two  hours. 
For  four  hours  a  heavy  fire  was  kept  up,  for  the  men  were  so 
enthusiastic  that  they  could  not  be  kept  from  the  guns,  but 
after  they  had  become  tired  by  the  hard  labor,  not  more  than 
half  as  many  guns  could  be  kept  at  work.  The  Confederate 
fire,  too,  Avas  so  incessant  that  the  shot  and  shells  came  nearly 
every  instant,  and  it  was  almost  certain  death  to  any  one  to 
leave  the  lower  casemates,  which  were  bomb-proof.  Several 
vessels  of  the  fleet  sent  to  relieve  the  fort  were  seen  about  noon 
through  the  port-holes,  but  the  batteries  below  the  fort  were  too 
strong  for  them  to  pass.  They  dipped  their  flags,  that  is,  low- 
ered them  a  little,  as  a  signal  to  Major  Anderson,  and  he  ordered 
the  flag  of  Sumter  to  be  dipped  in  answer.     This  was  a  danger- 


1861.] 


SUMTER   UNDER  FIRE. 


m 


ous  duty,  for  the  shells  were  frequently  bursting  in  the  parade, 
in  the  centre  of  which  the  flag-staff  stood,  but  it  was  safely  done. 
It  had  scarcely  been  raised  again  when  a  shell  burst  near  it  and 
cut  the  halyards,  but  the  rope  was  so  twisted  that  the  flag  did 
not  fall. 

The  wooden  barracks  in  the  parade  were  set  on  fire  by  burst- 
ing shells  three  times  on  Friday,  but  the  flames  were  put  out 
by  the  men,  these  being  the  only  occasions  on  which  Major  An- 


Fort  Sumter  in  1861. 

derson  would  let  them  risk  their  lives.  He  had  ordered  them 
not  to  try  to  fire  the  barbette  guns,  that  is,  the  uncovered  guns  on 
the  parapet  or  top  wall  of  the  fort,  on  account  of  the  great  dan- 
ger, for  several  of  these  guns  had  already  been  struck  by  shot. 
Notwithstanding  this,  several  men  slipped  up  there  and  fired 
some  of  them  which  had  been  loaded  and  pointed  the  day  before, 
and  came  down  unhurt.  The  cartridges  gave  out  by  noon  of 
Friday,  and  a  party  of  men  were  kept  at  work  in  the  magazine 
making  cartridges  out  of  blankets  and  flannel  shirts,  the  latter 


60  SUMTER  [1861. 

being  found  the  best  for  this  purpose  because  it  was  so  easy  to 
cut  off  the  sleeves  and  fill  them  Avith  powder,  thus  avoiding  the 
necessity  of  sewing  them  up.  Meals  were  served  at  the  guns,  so 
as  to  keep  up  the  firing. 

On  Friday  afternoon  the  Confederate  fire  became  very  de- 
structive. Heavy  shot  and  shells  plunged  deep  into  the  masonry, 
cutting  out  large  masses  near  tbe  embrasures  or  port-holes,  and 
throwing  pieces  of  stone  and  mortar  among  the  cannoneers, 
but  fortunately  doing  little  harm  to  them.  One  old  veteran  of 
the  Mexican  war,  Sergeant  Kearnan,  was  struck  on  the  head  by 
a  piece  of  concrete  and  knocked  senseless.  On  being  revived, 
he  was  asked  if  he  was  much  hurt.  "0  no,"  he  said,  "only 
knocked  down  temporarily;"  and  he  went  to  work  again.  The 
Confederates  kept  up  their  firing  during  Friday  night,  but  Ma- 
jor Anderson  did  not  reply.  Some  of  the  men  climbed  the  flag- 
staff to  try  to  fasten  new  halyards,  but  found  it  impossible  to 
disentangle  the  old  ones,  so  that  the  flag  still  remained  flying. 
All  night  long  men  were  kept  on  watch,  Major  Anderson  partly 
expecting  boats  from  the  fleet,  and  partly  fearing  a  Confederate 
attack  in  boats. 

On  Saturday  the  Confederate  firing  was  hotter  than  ever, 
and  before  long  the  barracks  in  the  parade  were  again  in  flames, 
burning  so  fiercely  that  it  was  found  impossible  to  put  them 
out,  especially  as  the  enemy  were  firing  red-hot  shot.  The  fire 
soon  reached  some  of  the  shells  and  grenades  in  the  fort,  and 
they  began  to  explode  in  every  direction,  fortunately  hurting  no 
one,  but  adding  to  the  danger  and  confusion.  It  was  soon 
feared  that  the  fire  would  reach  the  magazine,  and  both  officers 
and  men  set  to  Work  to  roll  barrels  of  powder  out.  This  was 
very  dangerous  work,  for  a  spark  might  at  any  moment  reach 
the  powder  and  blow  the  fort  to  atoms.  About  ninety  barrels 
were  got  out  and  thrown  into  the  sea  through  the  embrasures. 
There  were  still  two  hundred  barrels  left  in  the  magazine,  but 
the  heat  had  become  so  great  that  the  men  could  not  work  any 
more.  The  great  copper  doors  were  therefore  closed  and  locked, 
and  a  shot  soon  after  struck  the  door  and  bent  the  lock  so  that 
it  could  not  be  opened  again.  The  wind  blew  the  smoke  so  as 
to  fill  the  fort,  and  the  men  could  neither  see  each  other  nor 
scarcely  breathe;  and  soon  they  were  obliged  to  lie  flat  on  their 
faces  and  hold  wet  cloths  over  their  mouths  to  save  themselves 


1861.] 


THE  SURRENDER. 


6 


from  being  stifled.  Although  but  few  cartridges  were  left,  a 
gun  was  occasionally  fired  to  let  the  enemy  and  the  fleet  know 
that  Sumter  still  held  out,  but  the  smoke  was  so  thick  that  the 
men  could  not  see  to  aim.  At  this  time  the  last  biscuit  had 
been  eaten,  and  the  only  food  left  was  salt  pork. 

In  the  afternoon  of  Saturday  the  flag-staff  was  cut  by  a 
shot,  this  being  the  ninth  time  it  had  been  hit,  and  the  flag 
came  down.  Lieutenant  Hall  rushed  out  and  brought  it  in,  and 
it  was  then  nailed  to  a  staff  and  planted  on  the  parapet.  The 
Confederates,  supposing  that  the  flag  had  been  struck,  that  is, 


Interior  op  Fort  Sumter  after  the  Bombardment. 


hauled  down,  meaning  that  the  fort  had  surrendered,  sent  offi- 
cers with  a  flag  of  truce  to  Major  Anderson.  Major  Anderson 
told  the  officers  that  the  flag  had  not  been  struck,  but  after 
several  hours  parley  it  was  finally  agreed  that  the  fort  should 
be  given  up,  and  that  its  brave  defenders  should  be  allowed  to, 
march  out  with  all  the  honors  of  war,  and  that  they  should  be 
permitted  to  salute  their  flag  and  take  it  with  them. 

After  working  hard  to  put  out  the  fire,  the  men  slept  as  well 
as  they  could  on  Saturday  night.  On  Sunday  morning  the 
baggage  of  the  officers  and  men  was  put  on  board  a  small 
steamer,  the  Isabel,  sent  down  by  General  Beauregard.  The 
men  were  then  drawn  up  under  arms  on  the  parade,  and  a  part 


62 


SUMTER 


[1861 


of  tliem  told  off  to  fire  the  salute  to  the  flag,  which  was  still  fly- 
ing. When  the  last  of  the  fifty  guns  had  been  fired,  the  flag, 
which  had  several  shot-holes  in  it,  was  lowered.  During  the 
firing  of  the  salute,  a  gun  went  off  before  it  was  fully  loaded 
and  killed  one  man,  private  Daniel  Hough.  A  pile  of  cartridges 
at  the  foot  of  the  gun  were  also  exploded  and  several  others 
wounded.  Hough  was  buried  with  funeral  honors,  and  at  half- 
past  nine  o'clock  of  Sunday  morning,  Major  Anderson  and  his 
men  marched  out  with  their  arms  and  their  flag,  the  band  play- 
ing "  Yankee  Doodle,"  and  embarked  on  the  Isabel,  which 
transferred  them  on  Monday  to  the  steamer  Baltic,  one  of  the 
vessels  of  the  fleet  off  the  harbor.  The  next  day  they  sailed  for 
^N~ew  York,  leaving  Sumter  behind  them  a  smoking,  shapeless 
ruin. 


Rodman  Gun. 


CHAPTER  V. 
UPRISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 

Rejoicing  in  the  South.— Washington  Threatened.— Lincoln  Calls  fob  Troops.— Enthu- 
siasm in  the  North.— 75,000  Coffins  Wanted.— Secession  of  Virginia.— Help  for  Wash- 
ington.—Massachusetts  Troops  Mobbed  in  Baltimore.— Washington  in  a  State  of 
Siege.— The  New  York  Seventh  and  the  Massachusetts  Eighth.— Ben.  Butler.— Old 
Ironsides.— Railway  Repairing.— Room  Enough  to  Bury  Seventy-five  Thousand. — I 
must  have  Troops.— Baltimore  Overawed.— Harper's  Ferry  Burned.— Destruction  of 
the  Gosport  Navy  Yard.— The  Blockade  Proclaimed.— Confederate  Prfvateers.— 
North  Carolina  Secedes— More  Volunteers  Wanted.— Capture  of  Camp  Jackson,  St. 
Louis.— Union  Feeling  in  Kentucky. 

THE  news  of  the  fall  of  Sumter  was  received  with  rejoicing 
throughout  the  Southern  States.  Salutes  were  fired, 
hells  were  rung,  and  Confederate  flags  were  everywhere  dis- 
played. In  a  speech  in  Montgomery,  Mr.  Walker,  the  Confed- 
erate Secretary  of  War,  predicted  that  before  the  first  of  May 
the  Confederate  flag  would  float  over  Washington  City.  Indeed, 
this  was  common  talk  in  all  parts  of  the  South,  and  in  Virginia 
was  sung  a  song,  the  first  verse  of  which  ended: 

"  The  Union  it  is  done — 
The  secession  flag,  ere  many  months, 
Will  wave  o'er  Washington!"* 

In  the  Northern  States  the  report  of  the  surrender  was 
scarcely  believed,  although  a  telegram  announcing  it  had  been 
published  in  the  New  York  Herald  of  Sunday,  April  14;  but 
when  the  newspapers  of  Monday  morning  appeared  with  the 
proclamation  of  President  Lincoln,  calling  for  seventy-five 
thousand  volunteers  to  aid  in  the  execution  of  the  laws,  sus- 
pense was  at  an  end.  Up  to  this  time  the  North  had  been 
divided.  The  party  feeling  stirred  up  in  the  Presidential  elec- 
tion had  not  yet  died  out,  and  Democrats  and  Republicans  were 
still  suspicious  of  each  other,  and  apt  to  find  fault  with  every 
expression  of  each  others'  opinions.  There  were  very  few,  too, 
on  either  side,  who  had  ever  believed  that  the  quarrel  would 
end  in  blood,  and  while  many  were  openly  denouncing  any  act 
which  would  tend  to  bring  about  that  result,  all  were  quietly 

*  See  Appendix,  page  563. 


64  UPRISING   OF  TEE  NORTH.  [1861. 

pursuing  their  every-day  business,  hoping  that  the  troubles 
would  soon  end  in  compromise  and  peace.  But  the  fall  of  Sum- 
ter and  the  President's  call  for  troops  awoke  everybody  from 
his  dream,  and  the  people  of  the  North  rose  as  one  man  to  de- 
fend the  flag.  Enthusiastic  meetings,  in  which  citizens  of  all 
political  opinions  took  part,  were  held  in  the  different  cities, 
large  sums  of  money  were  subscribed  for  the  cause  of  the  Union, 
and  the  free  States  yied  with  each  other  in  raising  troops  and 
in  putting  them  in  the  field. 

The  news  of  the  President's  call  for  troops  was  received  by  the 
Confederate  Congress  sitting  at  Montgomery  with  "derisive 
laughter,"  and  the  following  epigram  was  published  in  some  of 
the  newspapers  as  an  answer: 

"Davis  answers,  rough  and  curt, 

With  mortar,  paixban,  and  petard; 
Sumter  is  ours,  and  nobody  hurt : 
We  tender  Old  Abe  our  Beau-regard." 

A  Mobile  newspaper  published  an  advertisement  as  follows: 

"75,000  Coffins  Wanted. 
"Proposals  will  be  received  to  supply  the  Confederacy  with  75,000 
Black  Coffins. 

"JSP  No  proposals  will  be  entertained  coming  north  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  Line.     Direct  to 

"Jeff.  Davis,  Montgomery,  Ala." 

Some  have  tried  to  show  that  this  advertisement  was  author- 
ized by  Mr.  Davis  to  show  contempt  for  Mr.  Lincoln's  procla- 
mation, but  of  course  it  was  only  a  newspaper  jest. 

The  War  Department  at  Washington  asked  the  eight  slave 
States  which  had  not  yet  seceded  to  furnish  their  quota  of  the 
seventy-five  thousand  men  wanted,  but  nearly  all  their  govern- 
ors refused.  There  had  been  a  strong  Union  feeling  in  Vir- 
ginia up  to  this  time,  but  the  fall  of  Sumter  had  strengthened 
the  secessionists,  and  the  President's  proclamation  had  discour- 
aged the  Unionists,  and  on  April  17  the  convention  in  session 
at  Eichmond  passed  an  ordinance  of  secession,  providing,  how- 
ever, that  it  should  be  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people  of  the 
State.  There  was  considerable  opposition  to  this  act,  especially 
in  the  western  counties  of  the  State,  and  the  result  was  that  the 
Unionists  of  those  counties  soon  after  (June  17)  formed  a  sepa- 


1861.] 


THE  BALTIMORE  MOB. 


65 


rate  government,  with  Francis  H.  Pierpont  as  Governor.  They 
claimed  to  be  the  true  government  of  Virginia,  on  the  ground 
that  the  loyal  people  of  a  State  are  the  State.  They  finally 
separated  from  Virginia  and  formed  a  new  State,  at  first  called 
Kanawha,  after  the  principal  river,  but  afterward  West  Vir- 
ginia, which  was  admitted  into  the  Union  in  1862. 

The  rumors  that  Washington  would  soon  be  attacked  had 
been  rife  for  some  time,  and  as  the  danger  had  increased  after 
the  secession  of  Virginia,  troops  were  hastily  sent  forward  to 
guard  it  against  surprise.  The  first  volunteers  to  reach  there 
were  from  Pennsylvania,  but  the 
first  full  regiment  to  answer  the 
President's  call  for  troops  was  the 
Sixth  Massachusetts,  which  left  Bos- 
ton in  the  afternoon  of  April  17. 
They  arrived  in  Baltimore  about 
noon  of  Friday,  April  19,  and  while 
passing  through  the  streets  from  the 
Camden  to  the  Washington  station 
were  assailed  by  a  mob  with  stones, 
clubs,  and  pistols.  After  three  of 
the  soldiers  had  been  killed  and  sev- 
eral wounded,  part  of  the  regiment 
fired  on  the  mob,  killing  eleven  and 
wounding  many  others.  The  regi- 
ment at  last  reached  the  depot,  and 
the  train  hastened  to  Washington 
though  it  was  fired  on  several  times 
by  the  way,  and  in  one  place  rails  were  found  torn  up  from  the 
track. 

The  coming  of  the  Massachusetts  men  gave  great  joy  to  the 
Unionists  in  Washington,  who  were  filled  with  anxiety  lest  the 
city  should  be  attacked.  General  Scott  had  done  what  he  could 
to  secure  the  public  buildings.  The  doors  and  windows  of  the 
Capitol  were  barricaded,  and  cannon  and  ammunition  were 
taken  into  it,  and  cannon  were  placed  in  the  halls  of  the  Treas- 
ury Building.  The  streets  were  patrolled  at  night  by  armed 
citizens,  and  soldiers  were  quartered  in  the  great  East  Eoom 
of  the  White  House  to  act  as  a  body-guard  to  the  President. 

On  the  19th  of  April,  the  very  day  when  the  Sixth  Massa- 


Soldier  of  the  Massachusetts 
Sixth. 


66 


UPRISING   OF  THE  NORTH. 


[1861- 


chusetts  was  attacked  in  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  the  Eighth 
Massachusetts,  another  regiment  of  the  same  brigade,  marched 
through  the  streets  of  New  York  on  its  way  to  "Washington. 
General  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  the  commander  of  the  brigade, 
accompanied  this  regiment,  which  was  followed  a  few  hours 
later  by  the  Seventh  New  York,  under  Colonel  Marshal  Lefferts, 
then,  as  now,  one  of  the  finest  regiments  of  the  city.  There 
was  great  excitement  in  New  York,  and  the  regiments  were 
greeted  as  they  marched  down  Broadway  with  waving  flags  and 


The  East  Room  of  the  White  House  in  1861. 

the  cheers  of  thousands  of  people,  who  packed  the  sidewalks 
and  filled  every  window  along  the  route. 

Baltimore  being  completely  in  the  hands  of  the  disunionists, 
General  Butler  went  with  his  regiment  directly  to  Annapolis, 
the  capital  of  Maryland,  and  the  seat  of  the  United  States 
Naval  Academy.  He  arrived  in  the  night,  and  found  the  city 
lighted  up,  and  the  secessionists  there  waiting  for  the  arrival  of 
men  from  Baltimore,  intending  to  take  possession  of  the  frigate 
Constitution,  then  used  at  the  Academy  as  a  school-ship.  The 
sight  of  "  Old  Ironsides,"  almost  as  old  as  the  Union  itself,  and 
endeared  to  every  American  by  her  glorious  career  as  the  con- 
queror of  the  Guerriere,  the  Cyane,  the  Levant,  and  the  Java, 


1861.] 


BAIL  WAY  REPAIRING. 


67 


roused  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Massachusetts  men,  and  they  de- 
termined to  save  her.  General  Butler  asked  if  there  were  any 
men  in  his  regiment  who  could  sail  a  ship.  Fifty-three  men 
stepped  from  the  ranks,  one  of  whom  was  the  son  of  the  man 
who  built  the  Constitution.  These  were  put  on  board  the  old 
ship,  and  she  was  sent  safely  to  New  York.  Shortly  afterward 
the  New  York  Seventh  arrived,  and  Gen- 
eral Butler  felt  strong  enough  to  move 
toward  Washington. 

The  railway  route  from  Annapolis  to 
"Washington  can  be  easily  understood 
from  the  map  (p.  69).  The  secession- 
ists, determined  that  troops  should  not 
pass  through  Maryland,  had  torn  up  a 
large  part  of  the  railroad  track  between 
Annapolis  and  Annapolis  Junction, 
where  the  road  joins  the  Washington 
Branch  Kailroad,  between  Baltimore  and 
Washington.  General  Butler,  seeing 
the  necessity  of  this  road,  determined  to 
open  it  and  hold  it.  He  seized  the  rail- 
way station,  and  finding  there  a  locomo- 
tive which  the  secessionists  had  disabled 
so  that  it  would  not  work,  called  on  his 
regiment  for  men  to  repair  it.  A  man 
named  Homans  stepped  out  of  the  ranks 
and,  after  carefully  examining  it,  said: 
"I  think  I  can  do  it,  General;  I  helped 
to  build  it."  With  the  aid  of  other 
machinists  from  the  regiment,  the  engine  was  soon  in  order 
and  at  work.  The  rails  were  then  hunted  up  in  the  woods, 
in  gullies,  and  other  places  where  they  had  been  hidden,  and 
relaid,  and  bridges  rebuilt.  At  one  place  some  rails  had  been 
thrown  into  deep  water  at  a  bridge  crossing,  but  an  amphibious 
Yankee  dived  for  them  and  found  them.  The  two  regiments 
moved  forward  carefully,  marching  all  clay  and  all  night,  re- 
building the  road,  and  keeping  a  close  watch  lest  they  should  be 
fired  on  from  the  woods  and  other  lonely  places,  but  they  were 
not  molested,  for  the  whole  country  appeared  to  be  deserted. 
On  the  morning  of  April  25,  Annapolis  Junction  was  reached, 


Private  of  the  Seventh 
New  York. 


68 


UPRISING   OF  THE  NORTH. 


[1861. 


and  the  Seventh  took  the  cars  for  Washington,  while  General 
Butler  and  the  Massachusetts  men  remained  to  keep  open  the 
railroad. 

The  secessionists  were  somewhat  overawed  by  these  prompt 
measures,  and  saw  the  need  of  gaining  time.  A  deputation  of 
Marylanders  and  Virginians  called  on  President  Lincoln  and 
demanded  that  all  hostilities  should  cease  until  the  meeting  of 
Congress,  which  was  called  for  July  4.  As  this  would  give 
them  an  opportunity  to  finish  their  preparations,  and  perhaps 
even  to  take  Washington,  Mr.  Lincoln  of  course  declined  to 
give  this  promise.  One  of  the  visitors  then  said  that  seventy- 
five  thousand  Marylanders  would  contest  the  passage  of  troops 


The  Naval  Academy  and  Landing,  Annapolis. 


over  her  soil.  "Well,"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln,  "I  presume  there 
is  room  enough  on  her  soil  to  bury  seventy-five  thousand  men." 

Another  deputation,  from  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations, headed  by  theEev.  Dr.  Fuller,  of  the  Baptist  Church, 
called  on  the  President,  and,  saying  that  the  Southern  States 
would  "never  again  be  united  with  the  North,"  expressed  a 
hope  that  no  more  troops  would  be  allowed  to  cross  Maryland. 
Mr.  Lincoln  received  them  kindly  and  treated  them  politely, 
but  said,  "I  must  have  troops  for  the  defence  of  the  Capital. 
The  Carolinians  are  now  marching  across  Virginia  to  seize  the 
Capital  and  hang  me.  What  am  I  to  do?  I  must  have  troops, 
I  say;  and  as  they  can  neither  crawl  under  Maryland  nor  fly 
over  it,  they  must  come  across  it." 

And  they  did  go  across  it,  and  before  the  end  of  the  month 
more  than  fifty  thousand  men  were  in  Washington,  and  the 
Capital  of  the  nation  was  safe.     Shortly  afterward,  General 


1861.] 


HARPER'S  FERRY. 


69 


Butler  made  a  sudden  march  one  stormy  night  to  Baltimore,  and 
before  the  disunionists  knew  of  his  coming,  took  possession  of 
Federal  Hill,  a  height  commanding  the  city.  The  city  being 
thus  at  his  mercy,  the  regular  line  of  railway  from  there  to 
Washington  was  reopened.  A  singular  railway  battery  was  built 
to  protect  the  men  engaged  in  repairing  and  guarding  the  road 
between  Baltimore  and  Havre  de  Grace.  It  was  made  of  strong- 
boiler-plate  iron,  and  had  a  port-hole  in  front  for  a  large  can- 
non, and  loop-holes  for  musketry.  It  carried  a  garrison  of  sixty 
men,  and  was  pushed  ahead  of  the  locomotive  of  the  repairing- 
train  as  shown  in  the  picture.  After  the  reopening  of  this  road, 
troops  were  sent  through  Baltimore  without  further  trouble  from 
mobs.  Maryland,  thus  cut  off  from 
the  seceded  States,  was  thenceforth 
loyal,  although  many  of  her  citizens 
joined  the  Confederate  army,  while 
others  gave  aid  to  the  Confederate 
cause  by  all  means 
in  their  power. 

In  Virginia, 
mean  while, although 
the  people  had  not 
yet  voted  on  the 
cpiestion  of  seces- 
sion, the  disunion- 
ists were  very  active. 
Troops  were  drilled, 
money  raised  for  arming  and  equij)ping  them,  and  expeditions 
planned  for  the  capture  of  the  United  States  Arsenal  at  Har- 
per's Ferry,  and  the  Gosport  Navy  Yard,  near  Norfolk.  A  force 
of  several  thousand  men,  mostly  Virginia  and  Kentucky  rifle- 
men, marched  on  Harper's  Ferry,  but  Lieutenant  Jones,  then  in 
command,  who  had  but  forty-five  men  with  him,  burned  the 
buildings,  together  with  fifteen  thousand  Springfield  rifles,  and 
retreated  into  Pennsylvania.  The  disunionists,  however,  suc- 
ceeded in  saving  much  material,  and  a  large  part  of  the  valuable 
machinery  was  rescued  and  carried  to  Eichmond,  where  it  was 
afterward  used  in  making  and  repairing  fire-arms.  The  picture 
(p.  72)  shows  Harper's  Ferry  just  after  the  burning  of  the 
buildings.     Maryland  Heights  are  seen  on  the  left. 


Annapolis  and  Vicinity. 


70 


UPRISING   OF  THE  NORTH. 


[1861. 


Gosport  Navy  Yard  was  now  the  subject  of  great  anxiety. 
Orders  had  been  sent  to  the  officer  in  command  to  put  the  place 
in  a  state  of  defence,  for  its  value  at  the  time  was  almost  incal- 
culable. It  was  one  of  the  most  important  naval  stations  which 
the  government  possessed,  and  besides  its  great  stone  dry-clock 
and  its  buildings  for  the  construction  and  repair  of  ships, 
there  were  in  its  yards  and  buildings  more  than  two  thousand 
heavy  cannons,  many  shot  and  shell,  and  vast  quantities  of  other 
munitions  of  war  and  naval  stores.  Among  the  vessels  there 
were  the  ships-of-the-line  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Columbus, 
and  New  York,  the  last  of  which  was  on  the  stocks,  never  hav- 
ing been  launched;  the  frigates  United  States  (captor  of  the 
Macedonian),  Columbia,  Earitan,  and  Cumberland;  the  steam- 


Railway  Battery. 


frigate  Merrimac;  the  sloops-of-war  Germantown  and  Plymouth; 
and  the  brig  Dolphin.  Most  of  these  vessels  were  so  out  of  re- 
pair as  to  be  nearly  useless,  but  the  Germantown  and  the 
Cumberland  were  almost  ready  for  sea. 

The  commandant  was  slow  in  carrying  out  his  orders,  and 
Captain  Hiram  Paulding  was  sent  from  Washington  to  take 
command  of  the  navy-yard  and  to  save  the  property  from  fall- 
ing into  the  hands  of  the  disunionists.  On  his  arrival  there  in 
the  frigate  Pawnee  (April  20),  he  found  that  the  commandant 
had  ordered  the  ships,  excepting  the  Cumberland,  to  be  scuttled 
— that  is,  to  have  holes  cut  in  their  bottoms  for  the  purpose  of 
sinking  them — and  as  many  of  the  cannons  as  possible  to  be 
destroyed.  Among  the  ships  thus  sunk  was  the  Merrimac, 
which  was  afterward  raised  by  the  Confederates  and  made  into 
the  iron-clad  Virginia,  famous  for  its  fight  with  the  Monitor. 


1861.] 


QO  SPORT  NAVY  YARD. 


71 


Much  of  the  movable  property  was  at  once  put  on  board  of  the 
Pawnee  and  the  Cumberland,  and  the  rest  destroyed,  great 
quantities  of  shot  and  shell  and  many  small-arms  being  thrown 
into  the  water;  and  early  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  April  21, 
the  Pawnee  steamed  down  the  river  towing  the  Cumberland. 
Just  as  the  ships  started  a  rocket  was  sent  up  from  the  Pawnee. 
It  had  scarcely  burst  in  the  air  when  the  well-laid  trains  in  the 
ship-houses  and  on  the  decks  of  the  vessels  which  had  not  yet 
sunk  sprang  into  flame,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  conflagration 
became  general  and  lit  all  the  country  around  with  its  blaze. 
Several  of  the  guns  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania had  been  left  loaded,  and 
as  the  fire  reached  them  they  went 
off,  one  after  another,  and  added  to 
the  grandeur  of  the  scene.  The 
Pawnee  and  Cumberland  passed 
safely  down  the  river,  although 
vessels  had  been  sunk  in  the  channel 
to  hinder  them,  and  arrived  in  a 
few  hours  at  Fortress  Monroe.  Soon 
after  they  bad  left  a  volunteer  com- 
pany of  Virginians  took  possession 
of  the  ruins  of  the  navy-yard,  and 
hoisted  the  State  flag  on  the  flag- 
staff. Though  a  great  deal  of  war 
material  had  been  destroyed,  the 
disunionists  succeeded  in  saving 
much,  and  the  many  cannons  which 
fell  into  their  hands  afterward  served  to  arm  the  vessels  and 
forts  of  the  Confederacy. 

The  Virginia  Convention  now  went  still  further,  and  adopted 
(April  25)  the  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States,  putting 
the  whole  military  force  and  resources  of  the  State  under  the 
control  of  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States.  President 
Lincoln,  who  had  issued  a  proclamation  (April  19)  announcing 
a  blockade  of  the  ports  within  the  States  of  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas, 
now  issued  another  one,  extending  the  blockade  to  the  ports 
of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  To  blockade  so  long  a 
coast,  extending  from  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac  in  Virginia  to 


Kentucky  Rifleman. 


72 


VPRISIKG   OF  THE  NORTH. 


[1861. 


the  Eio  Grande  on  the  borders  of  Mexico,  indented  with  bays 
and  inlets  and  studded  with  islands  which  offered  the  best  of 
shelter  to  smugglers  and  blockade-runners,  was  an  immense 
undertaking.  But  it  was  necessary  to  do  it,  both  to  prevent 
foreign  ships  from  carrying  supplies  to  the  Confederates,  and 
to  prevent  the  latter  from  sending  out  their  cotton  to  be  ex- 
changed in  Europe  for  arms  and  munitions  of  war.     It  was  also 


Harper's  Ferry. 


necessary  to  prevent  the  Confederate  Government  from  fitting 
out  privateers,  or  private  armed  vessels,  in  their  ports,  to  prey 
upon  United  States  commerce.  Two  days  before  President 
Lincoln  issued  his  first  blockading  proclamation,  President 
Davis  had  issued  a  proclamation  (April  17)  inviting  citizens  of 
the  Confederate  States  to  fit  out  privateers,  and  as  we  had  then 
a  very  large  commerce,  such  vessels  might  easily  inflict  great 
injury.  President  Lincoln  f olloAved  his  blockading  proclamations 
with  another  one  (May  3)  calling  for  sixty-five  thousand  more 
volunteers,  and  eighteen  thousand  seamen  for  the  naval  service. 
The  few  available  ships  of  the  navy  were  despatched  to  the 


1861.] 


THE  CONFEDERACY. 


73 


Southern  coasts,  and  many  merchant  steamers  were  hastily  fitted 
out  as  men-of-war  and  sent  to  keep  them  company  in  blockade 
duty. 

North  Carolina  had  not  seceded  when  her  coast  was  thus 
blockaded.    Indeed,  there  was  s 


a  strong  Union  feeling  in  the 
State,  and  her  people  had  vo- 
ted not  to  call  a  convention 
to  consider  the  subject;  but 
being  surrounded  by  Confed- 
erate States,  the  Unionists 
were  finally  overawed,  and 
after  the  fall  of  Sumter  and 
President  Lincoln's  call  for 
troops,  the  State  authorities 
had  seized  upon  the  United 
States  forts,  arsenals,  and 
other  property.  A  conven- 
tion was  called  to  meet  at 
Raleigb,  at  which  an  ordi- 
nance of  secession  was  passed 
(May  20)  and  the  Constitution 
of  the  Confederate  States 
adopted.  In  the  meantime 
(May  6)  Tennessee  and  Ar- 
kansas had  also  withdrawn 
from  the  Union  and  joined 
the  Confederacy. 

The  Confederacy  n  o  w 
claimed  eleven  States,  and  the 
friends  of  secession  would 
probably  have  succeeded  in 
inducing  the  four  remaining 
slave  States,  Maryland,  Dela- 
ware, Missouri,  and  Kentucky, 
to  follow  them  if  the  Union- 
ists in  those  States  had  not 
been  more  energetic  in  action 


IS'OKFOLK   AND    VICINITY. 


than  those  opposed  to  them,  and  had  not  been  promptly  aided 
in  their  efforts  by  the  Government, 


74 


UPRISING  OF  THE  NORTH. 


[1861- 


While  these  things  were  taking  place  in  the  East,  events, 
were  ripening  in  the  West.  Missouri,  nearly  surrounded  by 
free  States  and  having  few  slaves  compared  with  the  States  fur- 
ther South,  had  a  large  Union  population,  but  was  at  first  con- 
trolled by  her  Governor  and  some  otber  leading  politicians  who 
were  disunionists.  Although  her  Convention  had  voted  against 
secession,  Governor  Jackson  had  refused  to  send  troops  to  Wash- 
ington in  answer  to  the  President's  call.  There  were  United 
States  arsenals  at  St.  Louis  and  at  Liberty  in  West  Missouri,  and 
the  disunionists  made  preparations  to  capture  them.  They 
■seized  the  latter  (April  20)  and  carried  off  all  the  arms  and 


Burning  of  the  Ships  at  the  Gosport  Navy  Vard 


munitions  there,  but  the  one  at  St.  Louis  was  held  by  Captain 
Nathaniel  Lyon  with  a  strong  garrison  of  regulars,  and  the  dis- 
unionists did  not  yet  feel  strong  enough  to  take  it.  But  they 
organized  a  State  Guard  and  formed  a  camp  near  St.  Louis 
which  they  called  Camp  Jackson,  naming  the  streets  in  it  after 
Davis,  Beauregard,  and  other  Southern  leaders.  Notwithstand- 
ing Governor  Jackson's  refusal  to  raise  troops,  Colonel  Frank 
P.  Blair  had  at  once  raised  a  Union  regiment,  and  several  others 
were  rapidly  forming.  On  the  night  of  April  25,  Captain  Lyon 
had  shipped  all  the  arms  which  were  not  needed  on  a  steamboat, 
and  sent  them  for  safety  to  Alton,  Illinois,  and  a  few  days 
afterward  (May  10)  he  and  Colonel  Blair  surrounded  the  State 
Guard  at  Camp  Jackson  with  six  thousand  men,  planting  bat- 
teries of  cannon  on  the  heights  around,  and  demanded  their 


1861.]  CAPTURE  OF  CAMP  JACKSON.  75 

surrender.  As  they  were  taken  by  surprise  they  could  not  do 
otherwise,  and  they  gave  themselves  up,  with  all  their  arms  and 
ammunition,  including  twenty  cannons.  Many  of  the  arms 
taken  had  been  sent  by  the  Confederate  authorities  from  the 
Arsenal  at  Baton  Kouge,  Louisiana,  and  some  of  the  soldiers 
wore  the  uniform  of  the  Confederate  States. 

Crowds  of  people  had  followed  the  troops  on  their  way  to 
Camp  Jackson,  many  out  of  curiosity,  but  a  large  number, 
armed  with  rifles,  shotguns,  and  other  weapons,  determined  to 
aid  the  State  Guard,  if  possible.  Captain  Lyon,  however,  was 
too  quick  for  them,  and  the  camp  was  surrounded  before  they 
could  reach  it.  Captain  Lyon  offered  to  release  all  his  prison- 
ers if  they  would  swear  not  to  take  up  arms  against  the  govern- 
ment. Only  eight  or  ten  agreed  to  this,  and  the  remainder, 
about  eight  hundred,  were  marched  in  a  body,  surrounded  by 
United  States  troops,  toward  the  Arsenal.  The  soldiers  were 
hooted  at  and  insulted  by  the  rabble  on  the  way  to  the  city,  and 
at  last  stones  were  thrown  and  pistols  fired  at  them.  A  German 
volunteer  company,  hard  pressed,  returned  the  fire,  and  twenty- 
two  persons  were  killed  and  many  wounded. 

The  city  of  St.  Louis  was  thrown  into  the  wildest  excitement 
by  this  act.  The  streets  were  thronged  with  citizens,  some  to 
hear  the  news  and  talk  over  the  event,  some  to  curse  the  sol- 
diers and  to  stir  up  the  people  to  revenge.  All  the  theatres, 
saloons,  and  restaurants  were  closed,  and  the  windows  and  doors 
of  private  dwellings  were  barred  for  fear  of  a  general  riot.  Bands 
of  men  marched  through  the  streets,  some  armed,  and  some 
carrying  banners  of  different  kinds.  Several  gun-stores  were 
broken  open  and  arms  distributed,  but  at  last  the  police,  armed 
with  muskets,  succeeded  in  dispersing  the  mobs,  and  in  saving 
private  property  from  further  damage.  On  the  next  day,  Gen- 
eral William  S.  Harney,  commanding  in  that  department, 
arrived  and  issued  a  proclamation  calling  upon  the  people  to 
obey  the  laws.  This  allayed  the  excitement  for  the  time,  and 
after  that  the  Unionists  kept  the  upper  hand  in  St.  Louis. 
But  the  disunionists  were  still  strong  in  some  other  parts  of  the 
State,  and  several  battles  were  fought  before  they  wTere  finally 
put  down. 

In  Kentucky  the  Union  feeling  was  too  strong  to  be  crushed, 
and  although  her  governor  and  many  of  her  princi})al  men  were 


76 


UPRISING  OF  THE  NORTE. 


[1861. 


disunionists,  the  people  refused  by  a  large  vote  to  call  a  con- 
vention to  consider  the  question  of  secession.  But  many  of  her 
young  men  joined  the  Confederate  army,  and  in  the  war 
thousands  of  gallant  Kentuckians  wearing  the  gray  were  arrayed 
on  many  a  bloody  field  against  their  brothers  in  blue. 


A  Bow  Gun. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
MARCH  INTO   VIRGINIA. 

Confederate  Congress  at  Montgomery.— King  Cotton.— Removal  to  Richmond.— Manas- 
sas Junction.— Washington  a  Camp.— Secessionists  in  Washington. — Secession  Lady's 
Costume.— A  Heavy  Petticoat.— Mary's  Caps.— Buttons  for  Lunch.— Brave  Miss  Web- 
ster.—A  Suspicious  Funeral.— A  Kite  with  a  Valuable  Tail.— The  Union  Troops  in 
Virginia.— Arlington  Heights.— Fort-Building.— Death  of  Ellsworth.— Fortress 
Monroe.— Contrabands.— Little  Bethel.— Big  Bethel.— Death  of  Theodore  Win- 
throp.— Lieutenant  Greble.— McClellan  in  Western  Virginia.— Philippl— Rich  Moun- 
tain.—Death  of  General  Garnett.— Patterson  Crosses  the  Potomac— Patterson  and 
Johnston. 

AFTER  the  fall  of  Sumter,  President  Davis  called  the  Con- 
federate Congress  to  meet  at  Montgomery  (April  29),  and 
in  the  session  which  followed,  strong  measures  were  adopted  for 
carrying  on  the  war.  At  this  time  forty  thousand  men  were  in 
the  field,  a  large  part  of  whom  were  hastening  on  to  Virginia, 
and  Mr.  Davis  was  authorized  to  call  for  one  hundred  thou- 
sand more.  Paper  money  and  bonds  and  postage-stamps  *  Avere 
issued,  and  agents  were  sent  to  Europe  to  try  to  get  foreign  gov- 
ernments to  recognize  the  Confederate  Government.  Arrange- 
ments were  also  made  to  buy  arms  and  munitions  of  war,  to  be 
paid  for  with  money  obtained  from  the  sale  of  cotton.  From  the 
beginning  the  disunionists  had  foundedgreat  hopes  on  cotton, 
which  they  believed  to  be  a  vital  necessity  to  the  manufacturers 
of  Europe.  It  was  commonly  spoken  of  as  King  Cotton,  and  it 
was  generally  thought  in  the  slave  States  that  universal  distress 
and  strikes  and  riots  would  ensue  in  the  factory-towns  of  Europe 
if  their  mills  were  compelled  to  close  for  want  of  it,  and  that 
this  would  force  their  governments  to  raise  the  blockade  and 
acknowledge  the  Confederacy.  Their  Congress  therefore  forbade 
private  persons  from  sending  cotton  out  of  the  Confederate 
States,  but  obliged  them  to  sell  to  the  government  for  Confed- 
erate bonds,  or  promises  to  pay;  and  the  cotton  thus  bought 
was  shipped  to  Europe  in  blockade-runners  and  sold  for  gold. 
These  blockade-runners,  most  of  which  afterward  sailed  under 
the  British  flag,  were  very  fast  steamers  that  eluded  the  vigi- 

*  Two,  five,  and  ten  cent  stamps  were  issued. 


78 


MARCH  INTO  VIRGINIA. 


[1861. 


lance  of  the  blockading  vessels,  and  ran  in  and  out  of  the  South- 
ern ports,  generally  under  cover  of  the  night.  Though  many 
of  them  were  captured,  they  succeeded  in  carrying  into  the  Con- 
federacy a  vast  amount  of  material  to  aid  in  carrying  on  the  war. 
President  Davis  did  not  wait  for  the  people  of  Virginia  to 
vote  on  the  question  of  secession,  but  removed  his  government 
to  Richmond  (May  20),  and  a  few  days  later  took  up  his  resi- 
dence there.  The  Virginia  Convention  had  made  over  to  the 
Confederate  Government  all  the  military  forces  and  supplies  of 
the  State,  and  troops  had  already  taken  possession  of  the  line 
of  defence  between  Richmond  and  Washington.  The  State 
troops  were  then  under  the  command  of  Robert  E.  Lee,  who 
had  resigned  his  commission  as  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  the 
United  States  army  (April  20)  soon  after  the  secession  of  Vir- 
ginia. He  was  appointed  Major-General  of  the  forces  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  at  once  set  about  organizing  the 
troops  and  forming  them  into  regiments. 
When  the  Virginia  forces  were  made  part  of 
the  Confederate  army,  Lee  was  made  a  brig- 
adier-general, and  was  put  in  command  of 
the  fortifications  at  Richmond,  but  he  did 
not  hold  any  very  important  position  in  the 
field  before  the  second  year  of  the  war. 

The  principal  places  occupied  by  the  Con- 
federates were  Harper's  Ferry  and  Manassas  Junction.  A  glance 
at  the  map  will  show  the  importance  of  these  two  points.  Har- 
per's Ferry,  at  the  head  of  the  g^eat  valley  of  the  Shenandoah, 
which  extends  into  the  heart  of  Virginia,  was  the  meeting  place 
of  two  railways,  one  leading  down  the  valley,  the  other  west- 
ward. Manassas  Junction  was  also  the  meeting- place  of  two 
railways,  one  connecting  Washington  with  Richmond,  the  other 
running  westward  through  Manassas  Gap  into  the  Shenandoah 
Valley.  Troops  could  easily  pass  by  railway  between  Harper's 
Ferry  and  Manassas  Junction,  and  threaten  Maryland  from  the 
one  point  and  Washington  from  the  other,  while  Richmond  was 
at  the  same  time  protected.  The  command  of  the  forces  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  called  the  Army  of  the  Shenandoah,  was  given 
to  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who  had  been  a  brigadier-gen- 
eral in  the  United  States  army,  but  who  had  resigned  about  the 
same  time  with  Colonel  Lee.     Under  him  were  Colonel  Thomas 


CONFEDERATE 
POSTAGE  STAMP, 


1861.] 


WASHINGTON  A   CAMP. 


79 


Jonathan  Jackson,  known  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Eun  as 
"Stonewall"  Jackson,  and  Colonel  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  afterward 
famous  as  a  cavalry  leader.  The  army  at  Manassas  Junction, 
then  called  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  was  commanded  by  Gen- 
eral Beauregard. 

Besides  these  two  armies,  there  was  a  small  Confederate 
force  near  Hampton,  on  the  peninsula  between  the  James  and 
the  York  rivers,  under  command  of  Colonel  J.  B.  Magruder, 
another  old  officer  of  the  United  States  army  who  had  resigned 
after  the  secession  of  Virginia,  his  native  State.  This  force 
was  watching  the  Federal  troops  at  Fortress  Monroe,  then  under 
General  B.  F.  Butler,  who  had  been  sent  there  from  Baltimore 


Residence  of  Jefferson  Davis  in  Richmond. 


to  take  command  of  the  Department  of  Eastern  Virginia.  Still 
another  small  force  was  stationed  in  Western  Virginia  to  guard 
the  line  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  leading  into  the 
States  west  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains. 

While  the  disunionists  were  thus  preparing  to  make  good 
their  claims  of  independence  by  force  of  arms,  thousands  of 
volunteers  from  the  great  North  and  West  had  flocked  into 
Washington,  which  soon  looked  like  a  great  camp.  The  men 
were  quartered  wherever  room  could  be  found  for  them,  some 
in  the  Capitol,  some  in  the  Patent-Office  and  other  public 
buildings,  some  at  the  Navy  Yard,  and  some  in  public  halls. 
The  Capitol  looked  like  a  fortress,  the  Senate  Chamber  and 
Hall  of  Representatives,  the  Rotunda,  and  other  rooms  being 


80  MARCH  INTO  VIRGINIA.  [1861. 

filled  with  soldiers,  while  the  basement  rooms  were  turned  into 
store-rooms  for  beef,  pork,  flour,  and  other  necessaries.  The 
vaults  on  the  west  side  were  made  into  ovens,  where  thousands 
of  loaves  of  bread  were  baked  daily,  and  many  camp-fires  blazed 
in  the  surrounding  grounds. 

As  soon  as  the  soldiers  began  to  flock  to  the  field,  societies 
for  their  aid  were  formed  all  over  the  country.  "Women  and 
children  began  to  scrape  linen  to  make  lint,  and  to  prepare 
bandages  for  wounds.  Thousands  of  old  women  knit  stockings, 
while  the  younger  ones  made  hospital  clothes  for  the  sick  and 
wounded,  or  havelocks  for  the  soldiers  to  wear  when  marching 
in  the  hot  sun.  The  havelock  is  a  kind  of  white  cotton  cape, 
made  to  fall  down  from  the  back  of  the  cap  so  as  to  cover  the 
neck.  It  was  named  from  Sir  Henry  Havelock,  who  first  had 
them  made  in  1857  for  the  use  of  his  soldiers  in  the  great 
rebellion  in  India.  Thousands  of  these  were 
made  and  sent  to  the  army  during  the  first  year 
of  the  war,  but  the  soldiers  found  them  very  un- 
comfortable, because  they  kept  out  the  air,  and 
they  were  soon  given'  up.  The  different  socie- 
ties for  the  benefit  of  the  soldiers  became  united 
in  time  under  the  name  of  the  United  States 
the  havelock.  Sanitary  Commission,  and  did  a  great  deal  of 
good  throughout  the  war  in  giving  aid  to  the  sick  and  wounded. 
In  the  beginning  of  the  war  a  large  number  of  the  people  in 
and  around  AVashington  were  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  dis- 
unionists,  and  were  doing  all  in  their  power  to  help  them. 
Secession  women  were  much  more  defiant  than  the  men,  and 
not  only  worked  secretly  in  aid  of  the  Confederates,  but  openly 
walked  the  streets  wearing  secession  cockades  and  badges.  Some 
of  them  even  had  their  clothes  made  to  represent  the  Stars  and 
Bars,  the  waist  being  formed  of  the  blue  union  of  the  flag  with 
the  stars  on  it,  and  the  skirt  of  the  red  and  white  bars.  No 
notice  was  taken  of  them  by  the  authorities,  and  they  soon  be- 
came ashamed  of  their  folly.  It  was  then  the  fashion  to  wear 
large  hoops,  as  shown  in  the  picture,  and  disunion  ladies  found 
it  very  convenient  to  hide  letters,  medicines,  percussion-caps, 
and  other  contraband  articles  under  their  clothes  when  they 
went  South.  Women  Avere  employed  to  search  all  suspected 
persons  leaving  Washington,  and  once  a  petticoat  that  weighed 


1861.] 


MART'S  CAPS. 


81 


nearly  fifty  pounds  was  taken  from  a  woman.  It  was  quilted 
full  of  the  finest  sewing  silk,  then  very  much  needed  in  the 
South.  Another  was  found  filled  with  packages  of  quinine  a 
medicine  of  which  the  Confederate  army  was  greatly  in  want. 
In  another  case  a  lady,  whose  husband  had  held  a  high  position 
in  Washington,  but  who  had  "gone  with  his  State,"  succeeded 
in  carrying  through  the  line  many  letters,  despatches,  and 
drawings  of  military  works  which  gave  the  Confederate  author- 
ities a  great  deal  of  valuable  information. 


Secession  Lady's  Costume. 

All  trunks  and  parcels  on  railway  trains  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Washington  were  searched.  On  a  train  going  to  Harper's 
Ferry  the  officer  attending  to  this  duty  found  a  common  red 
wooden  trunk,  marked  "'Mary  Birkitt,  Wheeling,  Virginia." 
Mary  was  inquired  for  through  the  train,  but  no  Mary  came  to 
claim  the  trunk,  so  the  searcher  took  a  hammer  and  a  chisel 
and  opened  it.  When  the  lid  was  raised  the  inside  looked  very 
unsuspicious:  on  the  top  lay  a  pair  of  white  sleeves,  very  neatly 
arranged  beside  a  chemisette.  Under  them  was  a  dress  carefully 
folded — why  should  the  unmannerly  searcher  look  further?  It 
was  evidently  the  trunk  of  some  young  woman,  going  home 


82  MARCH  INTO  VIRGINIA.  [1861. 

perhaps  to  her  friends  in  the  South.  But  the  "minion  of 
tyranny"  was  still  unsatisfied,  and  insisted  on  lifting  up  the 
dress — and  lo!  under  it  were  more  caps  than  Mary  could  wear  in 
a  lifetime.  Unfortunately  for  her,  they  were  percussion-caps, 
and  the  innocent-looking  trunk  was  confiscated. 

At  another  time  an  officer  going  through  the  train  saw  a 
small  lunch-basket  on  the  floor  between  two  seats.  The  top 
was  partly  raised,  showing  the  ends  of  some  sandwiches  and 
some  pieces  of  gingerbread.  As  the  officer  was  looking  at  it, 
the  conductor,  who  happened  to  come  along  along,  said:  "  That 
belongs  to  an  old  woman.  I  believe  she  has  stepped  into  the 
forward  car."  That  seemed  very  reasonable,  but  the  officer, 
whose  wits  had  been  shaiqiened  by  his  knowledge  of  the  many 
tricks  of  the  enemy,  thought  he  would  just  put  his  finger  under 
the  handle  to  see  how  much  a  basket  of  lunch  weighs.  But  he 
couldn't  lift  it!  The  basket  stuck  to  the  floor.  He  then  raised 
it  with  his  hand,  and  under  the  gingerbread  he  discovered  about 
half  a  peck  of  bright  new  brass  buttons,  on  their  way  South  to 
adorn  the  uniforms  of  Confederate  soldiers. 

Other  still  more  singular  ways  were  frequently  adopted  to  get 
needed  things  into  the  Confederacy.  One  day  a  funeral  pro- 
cession started  from  Baltimore  to  cross  the  Long  Bridge  over 
the  Patapsco  River.  It  was  apparently  all  right — the  hearse 
with  the  coffin  at  the  head,  and  a  few  mourners  following.  The 
first  sentry  let  the  procession  pass  without  question,  but  the 
next  one,  more  suspicious,  thought  he  might  as  well  take  a 
peep  into  the  coffin,  just  to  make  sure;  and  lo!  instead  of  a 
corpse,  it  was  packed  full  of  muskets  and  ammunition.  When 
he  turned  to  look  for  the  mourners,  they  were  disappearing  in 
the  distance,  running  in  a  very  unreverential  manner,  but  he 
had  the  satisfaction  of  capturing  the  hearse  and  horses. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  Avar  there  was  a  great  deal  of  pass- 
ing to  and  fro  across  the  Potomac  between  Maryland  and 
Virginia,  and  large  quantities  of  needed  articles  were  sent  into 
the  Confederacy  by  that  route.  One  day  a  Maryland  young 
lady,  a  Miss  Webster,  reached  the  Potomac  and  found  a  boat  by 
the  bank  with  a  negro  in  it.  She  asked  the  negro  to  row  her 
over,  but  he  refused  for  fear,  he  said,  that  the  Yankees  would 
shoot  him.  Miss  Webster  drew  a  pistol  from  her  pocket,  and 
coolly  told  him  that  she  would  shoot  him  herself  if  he  did  not 


1861.]  A   VALUABLE  KITE.  83 

take  her  across.  The  negro,  frightened,  rowed  her  over  to  the 
Virginia  shore,  and  she  made  her  way  alone  to  Richmond,  with 
her  petticoats  qnilted  with  quinine  and  her  pockets  full  of  pins, 
needles,  thread,  and  many  other  necessaries  then  so  hard  to  get 
in  the  Confederacy. 

When  the  borders  were  so  strictly  guarded  that  persons 
could  not  pass,  letters  were  often  sent  across  the  Potomac  by 
means  of  kites.  A  very  large  kite  was  made  and  covered  with 
oiled  silk,  so  that  water  would  not  harm  it  if  it  should  get  into 
the  river.  The  tail  was  then  formed  of  letters  and  newspapers, 
tied  together  with  loop-knots  so  that  each  should  form  a  bob, 
as  many  being  put  on  as  the  kite  could  carry.  When  a  favor- 
able wind  was  blowing,  the  owner  would  fly  his  kite  until  it  had 
reached  a  proper  height.  He  would  then  cut  the  string,  and 
the  whole  would  be  carried  by  the  breeze  to  the  Virginia  shore, 
where  friends  on  the  watch  would  take  off  the  letters  and  news- 
papers. Letters  in  answer  and  Southern  newspapers  would  then 
be  attached  to  the  tail,  and  with  the  first  favorable  wind  the 
kite  would  be  sent  back  to  the  Maryland  shore. 

By  the  first  of  May  there  were  forty  or  fifty  thousand  men 
encamped  in  and  around  Washington,  under  command  of  Gen- 
eral Scott,  and  another  large  force,  under  General  Patterson, 
was  stationed  at  Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania,  watching  the 
movements  of  the  Confederates  at  Harper's  Ferry.  Although 
the  city  of  Washington  was  commanded  by  Arlington  Heights, 
on  the  Virginia  side  of  the  Potomac,  no  hostile  foot  crossed  the 
river  until  the  people  of  Virginia  decided  at  the  ballot-box  to 
leave  the  Union  for  the  Confederacy.  But  shortly  after  mid- 
night of  the  day  on  which  the  vote  was  cast  (May  23),  fifteen 
thousand  troops  passed  into  Virginia,  and  took  possession  of 
the  bank  of  the  river  opposite  Washington. 

Washington  lies  on  the  left  or  north  bank  of  the  Potomac 
River,  about  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  from  its  mouth 
in  Chesapeake  Bay.  About  two  and  a  half  miles  above  the  city, 
and  separated  from  it  by  Rock  Creek,  is  Georgetown,  opposite 
which,  on  the  Virginia  side  of  the  Potomac,  is  Arlington 
Heights;  and  seven  miles  below  the  city,  also  on  the  Virginia 
side,  is  Alexandria,  a  city  of  Virginia.  Washington  is  con- 
nected with  the  Virginia  side  of  the  Potomac  by  the  Long 
Bridge,  used  for  carriage  and  foot  travel  and  for  the  cars  of 


84 


MARCH  INTO  VIRGINIA. 


[1861. 


the  "Washington  and  Alexandria  Railroad.  From  Georgetown 
to  the  Virginia  side  crosses  the  Aqueduct  Bridge,  so  called 
because  it  has  an  aqueduct  for  a  branch  of  the  Chesapeake  and 
Ohio  Canal,  which  crosses  the  Potomac  there.  Above  the  aque- 
duct is  a  roadway,  nearly  a  mile  long,  for  carriages. 

The  troops  crossed  into  Virginia,  some  by  the  Long  Bridge, 
some  by  the  Aqueduct  Bridge,  and  some  by  steamboats.  Ar- 
lington Heights,  on  which  is  Arlington  House,  the  home  of 
General  Eobert  E.  Lee,  and  Alexandria  were  seized  without 
opposition,  a  few  Confederate  horsemen,  placed  there  to  watch 
the  Federals  across  the  river,  being  captured,  and  a  few  others 


Arlington  House. 


escaping  to  their  friends  at  Manassas  Junction.  It  is  said  that 
General  Lee  had  intended  to  build  a  battery  on  Arlington 
Heights,  but  was  anticipated  by  the  prompt  action  of  the 
Unionists.  The  troops  were  followed  by  wagons  loaded  with 
picks  and  shovels,  and  earthworks  were  at  once  begun  to  guard 
the  approaches  to  the  Long  Bridge  and  the  Aqueduct,  and  for 
the  protection  of  Arlington  Heights  and  Alexandria.  These 
were  the  beginning  of  the  defences  around  Washington,  which 
in  time  grew  into  fifty  large  forts  and  many  smaller  batteries 
completely  surrounding  the  city,  and  mounted  with  more  than 
a  thousand  cannons.  At  the  entrances  to  the  bridges  and  at 
other  exposed  places  block-houses,  made  of  hewn  logs,  were 
built,  with  loop-holes  for  musketry.  Some  of  these  were  used 
also  as  signal  stations. 


1861.] 


DEATH  OF  ELLSWORTH. 


85 


Block-House. 


Only  one  sad  event  marred  the  success  of  the  crossing  into 
Virginia.  Colonel  Ellsworth,  the  youthful  commander  of  the 
New  York  Fire  Zouaves  (he  was  not  quite  twenty-four  years 
old),  had  been  ordered  to  go  directly  with  his  regiment  to  Alex- 
andria by  steamer,  and  to  take  possession 
of  the  place.  The  troops  were  landed 
without  trouble,  and  Colonel  Ellsworth, 
giving  orders  to  some  to  see  to  the  rail- 
road, went  himself  with  a  few  men  to 
seize  the  telegraph-office.  On  the  way  he 
saw  a  Confederate  flag  flying  from  an  inn 
called  the  Marshall  House,  and  mounting 
to  the  top  of  the  building  cut  it  down  and  started  to  descend 
with  the  flag  in  his  arms.  But  he  had  scarcely  reached  the  first 
landing  when  a  man  in  his  shirt-sleeves  appeared  in  the  hall 
below  and,  levelling  a  double-barrelled  gun,  shot  him  through 
the  heart.  Ellsworth  fell  dead  down  the  stairs,  and  the  man, 
who  proved  to  be  James  T.  Jackson, 
the  landlord  of  the  hotel,  was  in- 
stantly killed  by  a  private  who  ac- 
companied Ellsworth.  The  state  of 
feeling  between  the  two  parts  of  the 
country  at  the  time  is  well  shown  by 
the  different  ways  in  which  this 
event  was  looked  at.  In  the  North 
Ellsworth's  death  was  called  a  mur- 
der, and  his  slayer  an  assassin;  while 
in  the  South  Jackson  was  regarded 
as  a  patriot  and  a  martyr,  and  sub- 
scriptions of  money  were  made  for 
the  support  of  his  family. 

It  has  been  said  before  that  Gen- 
eral Butler  had  been  sent  from  Bal- 
timore to  take  command  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  where  were  collected  ten  or  New  York  Fire  z'^ia™. 
twelve  thousand  volunteers.  Fortress  Monroe,  built  at  Old 
Point  Comfort,  Virginia,  for  the  protection  of  the  neighboring 
waters  and  of  the  navy-yard  near. Norfolk,  was  the  most  impor- 
tant fortification  on  the  Atlantic  Coast,  it  being  indeed  the  only 
fortress  in  the  United  States.     Fortresses  differ  from  forts  in 


86 


MARCH  INTO  VIRGINIA. 


[1861 


being  much  larger  and  stronger,  and  in  having  accommodations 
for  very  large  garrisons.  They  are  generally  built  for  the  pro- 
tection of  cities,  and  may  have  forts  outside  to  guard  their  own 
walls.  Fortress  Monroe,  which  covers  seventy-five  acres  and 
mounts  more  than  four  hundred  large  cannons,  needs  a  garrison 
of  three  thousand  men  to  fully  man  it.  Its  solid  granite  walls  are 
surrounded  by  a  deep  moat  filled  with  water,  and  the  peninsula 
on  which  it  is  built  is  connected  with  the  mainland  only  by  a 
narrow  isthmus  of  sand,  shown  on  the  right  in  the  picture,  and 
by  a  bridge,  seen  on  the  left,  leading  to  the  village  of  Hampton. 
The  disunionists  would  have  been  very  glad  to  get  possession 
of  this  strong  fortress,  but  they  gave  up  all  hopes  of  it  after 

General  Butler's  arrival.  Soon 
after  he  had  taken  possession, 
some  slaves  who  had  escaped 
from  plantations  near  by  came 
into  the  Union  lines.  When 
their  masters  came  to  claim 
them,  they  were  taken  before 
Butler.  The  General,  finding 
out  that  they  had  been  used  to 
build  fortifications  for  the  Con- 
federates, declared  that  they 
were  contraband  of  war — that 
is,  property  liable  to  be  seized 
as  aids  in  warfare — and  ordered 
them  to  be  set  at  work  throwing  up  earthworks  to  guard  the 
approaches  to  the  fortress.  After  that,  all  slaves  who  thus 
sought  the  protection  of  the  Union  forces  were  popularly  called 
"contrabands." 

This  was  the  first  blow  aimed  at  slavery  during  the  Civil 
War,  for  General  Butler's  act  was  approved  by  the  Government, 
and  after  that  runaway  slaves  were  generally  treated  as  contra- 
band of  war.  It  is  noteworthy  that  slavery  in  the  English 
colonies  also  began  at  the  place  where  Fortress  Monroe  now 
stands.  In  1619  a  Dutch  ship  with  the  first  slaves  on  board 
ever  brought  to  Virginia  touched  at  Point  Comfort,  as  it  was 
called  by  the  early  colonists,*  and  sold  twenty  of  them  to  the 
Jamestown  Colonists. 

*  They  so  named  it  because  it  was  their  first  landing-place  after  their 
long  voyage  from  England.     It  isjstill  called  Old  Point  Comfort. 


Ephbaim  Elmore  Ellsworth. 


[1861. 


A  DISGUSTED   CONTRABAND. 


87 


The  runaway  negroes  who  came  into  General  Butler's  lines, 
had  got  the  idea  that  in  escaping  from  their  masters  they  were 
going  to  be  free  to  do  as  they  pleased,  and  they  were  much 
annoyed  to  find  that  the  Unionists  made  them  work  as  hard  if 
not  harder  than  they  had  ever  done  at  home.     One  of  them, 


disgusted  after  a  long  day's  shovelling  at  the  earthworks,  ex- 
claimed, "  Golly,  Massa  Butler,  dis  nigger  never  had  to  work 
so  hard  before;  guess  dis  chile  will  secede  once  moah." 

To  make  his  position  more  secure  Butler  sent  a  force  to  take 
possession  of  Newport  News,*  a  point  at  the  mouth  of  the 

*  It  is  thus  commonly  spelled  in  the  maps,  but  the  point  was  probably 


MABCII  INTO  VIRGINIA. 


[1861. 


James  Elver.  He  had  a  camp  also  at  the  village  of  Hampton, 
about  three  miles  from  Fortress  Monroe.  The  Confederates 
occupied  the  places  in  front  of  these  positions,  and  their  cavalry 
used  to  ride  down  nearly  every  night  from  a  place  called  Little 
Bethel,  about  eight  miles  north  of  Newport-News,  and  annoy 
the  Union  picket  guards.  Butler,  wishing  to  stop  this,  sent  up 
some  troops,  on  the  night  of  June  9-10,  under  General  Pierce, 
to  drive  them  away.  Part  of  this  force,  which  was  largely  made 
up  of  New  York  volunteers,  marched  from  Hampton,  with 
orders  to  go  round  so  as  to  attack  Little  Bethel  from  the  rear, 
and  the  remainder  from  Newport-News  with  orders  to  attack 

in  front.  By  mistake  these  two 
parties  came  near  each  other 
just  before  daybreak,  and,  taking 
each  other  for  Confederates, 
opened  fire  with  both  cannon 
and  muskets.  The  blunder  was 
soon  discovered,  but  not  until  a 
number  of  men  had  been  killed 
and  many  wounded.  The  Con- 
federates, hearing  the  firing,  left 
Little  Bethel,  and  fell  back  to 
Big  Bethel,  several  miles  further 
north,  where  lay  a  larger  force 
protected  by  earthworks. 

General  Pierce  destroyed  the 
enemy's  camp  at  Little  Bethel 
and  advanced  to  Big  Bethel. 
There  he  found  about  1100  Con- 

Keighborhood  of  Fortress  Monroe,     federates,  Under   Colonel    D.  H. 

Hill,  with  several  guns,  protected  by  a  muddy  stream  in  front. 
An  attack  was  at  once  made  upon  them,  but,  being  badly  mis- 
managed, it  was  repulsed  by  the  enemy.  During  this  action  fell 
Theodore  Winthrop,  well  known  as  the  author  of  "  Cecil  Dreeme," 
"  John  Brent,"  and  other  stories,  who  was  shot  by  a  North  Caro- 
lina rifleman,  while  standing  on  a  log  and  cheering  on  his  men. 
He  went  from  New  York  as  a  private  in  the  ranks  of  the  Seventh 
Eegiment,  the  story  of  whose  march  to  Yfashington  he  told  so 

named  after  Captain  Newport  and  Sir  William  Newee,  whose  names 
were  jointly  given  to  it.  as  was  often  done  in  naming  places  in  those  days. 


1861.] 


WESTERN  VIRGINIA. 


89 


gracefully  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  Magazine  two  months  after- 
ward. Not  satisfied  with  his  experiences  as  a  soldier  during  the 
thirty  days'  campaigning  of  the  regiment,  he  accepted  the  posi- 
tion of  military  secretary  to  General  Butler,  an  office  which  he 
had  held  only  about  a  month  when  he  met  his  sad  fate.  Another 
sacrifice  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  was  Lieutenant  John  T. 
Greble,  of  the  Second  Artillery,  who  Avas  killed  by  a  rifle-ball 
while  covering  the  retreat  by  firing  upon  the  enemy  with  a  single 
field-gun.  He  had  just  ordered  the  gun  to  be  taken  away  when 
the  fatal  ball  struck  him  in  the  forehead,  and  he  fell  dead. 
Lieutenant  Greble  was  the  first  officer  of  the  regular  army  who 
fell  in  the  Civil  War.  He  was  a  very  promising  young  man, 
and  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him. 

We  must  now  take  a  look  into  Western  Virginia,  where 
General  Lee  had  sent  troops  fur  the  purpose  principally  of 
overawing  the  inhabitants  and 
forcing  them  to  take  the  side 
of  secession.  But  most  of  the 
people  there  were  firm  Union- 
ists, who  had  determined  not 
to  yield  to  the  Richmond  gov- 
ernment. In  the  month  of 
May  General  George  B.  Mc- 
Clellan,  formerly  an  officer  in 
the  regular  army,  but  then 
major-general  of  Ohio  volun- 
teers, was  made  a  major-general 
in  the  regular  army  and  given 
the  command  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Ohio,  formed  of  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois.  His  Department  being  separated  from  West  Virginia 
only  by  the  Ohio  River,  he  was  enabled  to  watch  closely  the 
actions  of  the  Confederates  there:  and  thinking  that  the 
Unionists  ought  to  receive  aid,  he  sent  some  of  his  troops  across 
the  river  and  issued  a  proclamation  (May  26)  calling  upon  all 
loyal  men  to  take  up  arms  against  the  disunionists.  Many  of 
them  had  already  formed  a  regiment  under  command  of  Colonel 
B.  F.  Kelley.  The  Confederates,  Avho  were  posted  at  Grafton, 
a  station  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  fell  back  to 
Philippi  on  the  approach  of  the  Union  forces.    On  the  morning 


Theodore  Winthrop. 


90 


MARCH  INTO  VIRGINIA. 


[1861. 


of  June  2  an  advance  was  made  on  Philippi,  which  is  about 
twenty-five  miles  from  Grafton.  It  was  expected  that  the 
Confederates  would  he  taken  by  surprise,  but  when  the  troops 
were  approaching  the  place  just  before  daylight  the  next  morn- 
ing, they  were  discovered  by  a  woman,  who  sent  her  little  boy  by 
a  short  road  over  the  hills  to  tell  of  their  coming.  When  the 
Unionists  came  in  sight  of  the  camp  the  Confederates  were  all 
astir,  and  though  their  camp  equipage  was  captured,  the  men 
escaped.     A  few  volleys  were  exchanged  by  which  several  men 

were  killed  and  wounded 
on  each  side.  Among  the 
wounded  was  Colonel  Kel- 
ley,  who  was  shot  through 
the  lungs,  but  he  finally 
recovered. 

The  Confederates,  de- 
termined to  hold  this 
mountain  region  if  possi- 
ble, sent  there  reinforce- 
ments of  about  six 
thousand  men, under  com- 
mand of  General  Robert 
S.  Garnett,  who  had  been 
George  b.  McClellan.  an  officer  of  the  regular 

army.  Garnett  took  up  a  position  at  a  place  called  Laurel  Hill,  a 
spur  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  which  commanded  the  main 
road  from  Wheeling  to  Staunton,  placing  a  smaller  body  of  men, 
under  Colonel  Pegram,  at  Rich  Mountain,  about  five  miles  below. 
McClellan,  who  had  a  much  superior  force,  made  up  his  mind  to 
try  to  capture  Garnett's  whole  army,  if  possible.  With  this  end  in 
view,  he  sent  General  Rosecrans  to  assail  Pegram  in  the  rear, 
while  he  attacked  in  front.  Rosecrans  marched  through  thick 
woods  and  by  mountain  paths  in  a  heavy  rain,  and  finally  got 
behind  Rich  Mountain.  The  path  up  the  mountain  was  rugged 
and  difficult,  but  the  Union  troops  toiled  up  through  briers 
and  laurel-bushes,  and  over  the  wet  rocks  and  slippery  earth. 
At  last  the  Confederates  spied  them,  and  opened  on  them  with 
artilleiy,  but  their  shots  did  little  damage.  After  a  sharp  fight 
Rosecrans  won  the  crest  of  the  hill.  During  the  following 
night,  Pegram,  finding  McClellan  in  his  front,  tried  to  escape 
to  join  Garnett  at  Laurel  Hill,  but  he  was  surrounded  in  the 


1861.]  PATTERSON  AND  JOHNSTON.  91 

woods  the  next;  day,  and  forced  to  surrender  with  six  hundred 
men,  a  few  companies  escaping.  General  Garnett,  hearing  of 
Pegram's  loss,  tried  to  retreat  southward,  but  McClellan  cut  off 
his  line  of  retreat,  and  he  was  forced  to  fly  eastward  over  a 
mountain  road.  The  way  was  difficult,  and  being  followed 
closely  by  the  Union  army,  he  had  to  turn  and  fight  frequently. 
The  last  stand  was  made  (July  13)  at  a  ford  on  Little  Cheat 
Eiver,  where  four  companies  of  a  Georgia  regiment  were  cut  off, 
and  General  Garnett  himself,  while  trying  in  vain  to  rally  his 
men,  was  killed.  The  losses  in  killed  and  wounded  in  these 
engagements  were  not  very  great,  but  the  Confederates  lost 
more  than  a  thousand  prisoners,  with  nearly  all  their  stores, 
baggage,  and  artillery.  The  Unionists  thus  gained  control  of 
Western  Virginia  through  the  skill  of  General  McClellan,  whose 
ability  soon  won  for  him  a  wider  field  of  action. 

While  these  things  were  going  on  in  Western  Virginia,  Major- 
General  Patterson,  in  command  of  the  United  States  forces  at 
Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania,  had  begun  to  move  toward  the 
Potomac.  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  commanding  the  Army 
of  the  Shenandoah,  feeling  that  Harper's  Ferry  could  not  be 
held,  burned  the  great  railroad  bridge  and  other  buildings  there 
which  might  be  useful  to  the  enemy,  and  withdrew  his  troops 
(June  13)  to  Winchester,  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Patterson 
crossed  the  Potomac  three  days  afterward,  but  on  the  18th  the 
troops  were  all  ordered  to  fall  back  into  Maryland,  and  part  of 
them  were  called  to  Washington.  Johnston  then  sent  General 
Jackson,  afterward  called  "  Stonewall,"  with  a  brigade  and 
General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart's  cavalry,  to  Martinsburg,  to  destroy 
all  he  could  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Eailroad.  On  the  2d  of 
July  General  Patterson  again  crossed  the  Potomac  at  Williams- 
port,  where  the  water  was  only  waist  deep,  and  took  position  at 
Martinsburg.  Jackson  fell  back  toward  Johnston,  keeping  up  a 
running  fire  with  the  Union  forces  as  ho  retreated.  Patterson 
had  then  about  eighteen  thousand  men,  while  Johnston  had  only 
about  eight  thousand;  but  instead  of  advancing  on  Winchester 
and  attacking  the  enemy,  as  he  was  expected  to  do,  he  turned 
toward  Harper's  Ferry  after  reaching  Bunker's  Hill,  and  marched 
(July  17)  to  Charlestown.  This  left  Johnston  free  to  move  where 
he  pleased.  How  he  improved  the  opportunity  and  what  effect 
it  had  on  the  Union  cause  will  be  shown  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTEE  VII. 
BULL  RUN. 

Five  Hundred  Thousand  more  Volunteers.— General  McDowell.— On  to  Richmond.— The 
March  begun.— Beauregard's  Position.— Battle  of  Bull  Run.— Stonewall  Jackson.— 
Johnston  aids  Beauregard.— Death  of  General  Bee.— Mrs.  Henry's  House.— A  Dis- 
gusted Irishman.— The  Stars  and  Stripes  or  the  Stars  and  Bars.— Kirby  Smith  and 
Early  to  the  Rescue.— The  Union  Rout.— Davis  visits  the  Battle-Ground.— The 
Centreville  Picnic— Confederate  Exaggerations.— A  Long  Retreat.— Den  I  got 
off.— Confederate  Hopes.— The  North  prepares  for  War  in  Earnest.— McClellan  in 
Command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac— The  Bull  Run  Monument. 

THE  extra  session  of  Congress  culled  by  President  Lincoln 
met  July  4,  approved  of  the  President's  acts,  and  em- 
powered him  to  accept  the  services  of  half  a  •million  more  vol- 
unteers for  three  years.  Washington  was  then  safe  from  attack, 
but  the  main  Confederate  force  still  lay  at  Manassas  Junction, 
within  marching  distance  of  the  Capital,  and  people  who  for 
weeks  had  watched  the  gathering  there  of  what  they  looked 
upon  as  a  resistless  force  began  to  wonder  why  the  Grand  Army, 
as  the  crowd  of  volunteers  was  fondly  called,  did  not  at  once 
move  upon  and  crush  the  "rebels."  General  Irvin  McDowell, 
who,  under  General  Scott,  was  at  the  head  of  this  force,  had 
never  commanded  a  large  body  of  men  in  the  field,  but  he  had 
had  a  thorough  military  training,  and  had  seen  European 
armies,  and  he  was  well  aware  that  his  troops  were  in  no  con- 
dition to  meet  an  enemy.  He  had  worked  hard  to  organize 
them,  but  the  regiments  were  formed  of  men  from  all  grades 
of  life,  commanded  principally  by  civilians  without  military 
knowledge.  In  most  cases,  so  little  drilling  had  they  had  that 
they  scarcely  knew  their  commanders,  and  some  of  the  brigadier- 
generals  had  never  seen  their  brigades  in  line.  A  large  part  of 
the  men,  too,  were  three  months'  volunteers,  whose  term  of  ser- 
vice had  nearly  expired.  General  Scott,  then  seventy-five  years 
old  and  too  weak  in  body  to  take  the  field,  Avas  of  the  same 
opinion  with  General  McDowell.  He  knew  that  the  army  was 
in  no  condition  to  move,  but  the  people  and  the  press  started 
the  cry  "  On  to  Eichmond!"  and  he  was  at  last  forced  to  yield 
to  public  opinion  and  make  an  advance  when  his  judgment  told 
him  it  was  wrong. 


1861.] 


MARCH  TO  MANASSAS. 


93 


It  may  be  said  that  the  Confederates  were  no  better  off — 
that  their  troops,  too,  were  new  to  military  service,  and  equally 
without  organization.  But  this  would  be  only  partly  true,  for 
most  of  them  had  been  longer  under  arms  than  the  Union 
troops,  who  were  made  up  chiefly  of  raw  levies  pushed  forward 
hastily  to  defend  the  Capital.  The  Confederates,  too,  were 
acting  on  the  defensive  in  a  country  well  known  to  themselves, 
and  were  occupying  a  strong  military  position.  A  glance  at 
any  good  map  of  Virginia  Avill  show  that  the  Confederate  armies 
at  this  time  held  very  advantageous  positions,  where  they  were 
enabled  not  only  to  threaten  the  Union  forces,  but  also  easily 
to  aid  each  other.  Beauregard,  with  the  main  army,  occupied 
a  line  along  a  stream  called 
Bull  Run,  his  headquarters 
being  at  Manassas  Junction, 
about  thirty-five  miles  from 
Washington,  where  he  was 
within  easy  communication 
with  Johnston  in  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley,  distant  about  4||g||| 
seventy  miles  by  railroad,  and  i  ■  . 
with  the  troops  in  the  Penin- 
sula and  at  Richmond,  dis- 
tant seventy-five  miles  by 
railroad.  The  Confederates 
thus  held  what  is  called  an 
interior  line,  with  their  troops  at  three  different  points  within 
easy  reach  of  each  other,  while  the  Union  forces  were  arrayed 
against  them  in  an  exterior  line,  in  which  the  several  bodies  of 
troops  were  at  much  greater  distances  from  each  other.  In  this 
the  Confederates  had  a  great  advantage;  but  to  overcome  this, 
General  Butler  at  Fortress  Monroe  was  expected  to  keep  the 
enemy  in  the  Peninsula  busy,  and  General  Patterson  was  ordered 
to  so  occupy  Johnston  that  he  could  not  send  reinforcements 
to  Beauregard. 

General  McDowell  began  his  march  toward  Manassas  in  the 
afternoon  of  Tuesday,  July  1G.  He  had  about  twenty-eight 
thousand  men,  in  four  divisions:  the  First  Division  under  the 
command  of  General  Tyler,  the  Second  under  Colonel  Hunter, 
the  Third  under  Colonel  Ileintzelman,  and   the  Fifth  under 


Irvin  McDowell. 


94  BULL  BUN.  [1861. 

Colonel  Miles.  The  Fourth  Division,  under 'General  Runyon,. 
was  left  to  guard  the  defences  on  the  Potomac  opposite  Wash- 
ington. The  First  Division,  which  led  the  advance,  did  not 
reach  Centreville  until  the  morning  of  the  18th.  General  Tyler 
had  been  cautioned  not  to  bring  on  a  battle;  but  thinking  that 
he  was  strong  enough  to  go  through  to  Manassas,  he  pushed  on 
to  Bull  Run,  which  he  reached  at  a  place  called  Blackburn's 
Ford.  From  the  heights  he  opened  an  artillery  fire  on  a  Con- 
federate battery  opposite,  and  finally  advanced  a  brigade  to  the 
stream.  But  the  Confederates  under  General  Longstreet  easily 
drove  him  back,  and  he  was  obliged  to  retire  with  a  loss  of 
nearly  a  hundred  men,  the  enemy  losing  about  sixty.  The 
effect  of  this  skirmish  was  bad  for  the  Unionists,  while  the  Con- 
federates were  greatly  elated  by  it. 

The  next  two  days  (July  19  and  20)  were  passed  in  study- 
ing the  ground  and  the  position  of  the  enemy.  Beauregard 
was  found  to  be  strongly  posted  on  the  other  side  of  Bull  Eun, 
a  stream  too  deep  to  be  crossed  excepting  at  the  fords,  which 
were  from  a  half-mile  to  a  mile  apart.  His  lines  were  about 
eight  miles  long,  from  Union  Mills  to  Stone  Bridge,  where  the 
Warrenton  Turnpike  crosses.  These  two  points  and  the  other 
fords  between  them  were  defended  by  batteries  behind  breast- 
works of  felled  trees,  and  supported  by  foot-soldiers,  mostly 
hidden  by  the  woods.  After  a  thorough  survey  of  the  position, 
General  McDowell  determined  to  make  a  false  attack  on  Beau- 
regard's right  below,  and  to  make  the  real  attack  on  his  left 
above  the  Stone  Bridge.  It  must  be  understood  that  as  the 
two  parties  in  a  battle  face  each  other,  the  enemy's  right  is 
always  opposite  the  left  of  the  attacking  force. 

In  accordance  with  this  plan,  Colonel  Miles  was  ordered  to 
hold  Centreville  with  his  division  and  to  make  a  false  attack  at 
Blackburn's  Ford  at  the  same  time.  Early  on  the  morning  of 
Sunday,  July  21,  the  First  Division,  under  Tyler,  moved  from 
Centreville  by  the  Warrenton  Turnpike  to  Stone  Bridge,  with 
orders  to  threaten  the  Confederates  at  that  point,  and  to  cross 
when  possible.  The  Second  and  Third  Divisions,  under  Hunter 
and  Heintzelman,  were  ordered  to  march  further  up  Bull  Run, 
and  cross  by  a  ford  at  Sudley  Spring,  which  it  was  found  the 
enemy  had  left  unguarded;  then,  coming  down  on  the  other 
side  of  Bull  Run,  to  attack  the  defences  of  the  Stone  Bridge  in 


1861.] 


STONEWALL  JACKSON. 


95 


the  rear.  All  these  movements  were  executed,  but  so  slowly 
that  Hunter  and  Heintzelman  did  not  get  across  Sudley  Ford 
until  ten  o'clock.  The  Confederates  were  found  strongly 
posted,  but  the  Union  troops  were  superior  in  number,  and 
after  a  stubborn  fight  forced  them  back  little  by  little  until 
Tyler  was  enabled 
to  cross  at  Stone 
Bridge.  The  Con- 
federate left  was 
thus  turned — that 
is, the  Union  troops 
had  got  around  it 
so  as  to  attack  it 
behind.  This  was 
a  great  advantage, 
for  with  good  man- 
agement the  Union 
troops  could  defeat 
this  end  before 
Beauregard  could 
get  up  his  other 
troops,  many  of 
whom  were  oppos- 
ing the  false  attack 
several  miles  below. 
The  Confede- 
rates, under  Gen- 
erals Evans  and 
Bee,  gave  way  and 
fell  back  slowly.  It 
was  afterward  said 
at  Eichmond  that 
they  were  whipped 
at  this  time,  but 
that  the  men  did 
not  know  it.  General  Bee,  however,  felt  that  the  day  was  lost. 
As  he  was  retreating  with  his  troops,  he  came  upon  General 
Jackson,  who  had  brought  several  regiments  to  his  support. 
"General,"  he  cried,  "they  are  beating  us  back!"  "Then, 
sir,"  replied  Jackson,   "we'll  give  them  the  bayonet."     Bee 


Site  of  the  Battle  op  Bull  Run. 


96  BULL  RUN.  [1861. 

rushed  back  to  his  hard-pressed  men,  exclaiming,  u  See,  there 
are  Jackson  and  his  Virginians,  standing  like  a  stone  wall;  let 
us  determine  to  die  here  and  we  will  conquer."  And  from  that 
time  Jackson  was  known  to  all  as  Stonewall  Jackson. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  last  chapter  we  left  Gen- 
eral Joseph  E.  Johnston  with  his  army  at  Winchester  in  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  and  that  General  Patterson  had  been 
ordered  to  press  him  so  closely  that  he  would  not  be  able  to  re- 
inforce Beauregard.  But  Patterson,  instead  of  following  up 
Johnston,  moved,  July  17,  to  Charlestown.  On  the  very  next 
day  McDowell  appeared  before  Bull  Bun,  and  Beauregard  im- 
mediately sent  word  to  Johnston  to  come  and  help  him.  John- 
ston, thus  left  free  by  Patterson,  joined  Beauregard  with  part 
of  his  troops  on  Saturday,  the  20th,  the  rest,  under  General 
Kirby  Smith,  being  detained  on  the  way  by  want  of  railroad 
cars  to  carry  them.  Thus  it  l^rpened  that  Johnston  and 
Stonewall  Jackson  were  present  at  the  battle,  while  Patterson 
was  wasting  his  time  at  Charlestown  with  more  than  twice  as 
many  men  as  Johnston  had. 

As  Johnston  was  higher  in  rank  than  Beauregard,  he  took 
command  of  the  whole  army,  but  he  approved  of  all  of  Beaure- 
gard's plans,  and  the  two  were  in  consultation  during  the  whole 
battle.  When  they  heard  how  hard  pressed  Evans  and  Bee  and 
Jackson  were,  they  galloped  to  that  part  of  the  field,  and  while 
Beauregard  took  command  in  person  and  tried  to  rally  the  dis- 
organized troops,  Johnston  rode  back  to  hurry  up  reinforcements. 

By  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  Confederates  had 
been  driven  back  beyond  the  Warrenton  Turnpike.  Beaure- 
gard took  a  new  position  on  a  kind  of  plateau  or  table-land, 
where  a  growth  of  young  pines  and  oaks  gave  shelter  for  sharp- 
shooters. Beinforcements  came  up,  and  the  battle  raged  more 
fiercely  than  ever.  The  possession  of  the  plateau  was  desper- 
ately contested,  being  sometimes  in  the  possession  of  one  party 
and  sometimes  in  that  of  the  other,  and  the  whole  open  ground 
was  streAvn  with  the  dead  and  wounded.  At  this  point  fell 
General  Bee,  of  South  Carolina,  and  Colonel  Bartow,  of  Georgia. 
Several  dwelling-houses  stood  within  the  limits  of  the  place 
where  the  fight  was  hottest,  among  them  the  residence  of  Mrs. 
Judith  Henry,  a  widow.  Not  suspecting  that  it  was  to  be  the 
scene  of  a  battle,  the  family  remained  in  the  house  until  it  was 


1861.] 


A  DISGUSTED  IRISHMAN. 


97 


too  late  to  escape.  The  noise  of  the  conflict  came  nearer  and 
nearer,  and  soon  cannon-shot  began  to  plow  up  the  ground 
around,  and  to  endanger  the  house.  Mrs.  Henry,  who  was  an 
invalid  confined  to  her  bed,  was  carried  by  her  son  and  daugh- 
ter to  a  gully,  or  kind  of  hollow  washed  out  by  running  water, 
and  there  the  three  lay  in  safety  until  the  combatants  had  passed 
by.  Thinking  themselves  safe,  the  children  bore  their  aged 
mother  to  the  house  again;  but  the  Union  troops  were  driven 
back,  and  the  fight  again  raged  so  hotly  around  them  that  it 


Bull  Run  Battle-Ground.* 

was  impossible  to  leave.  The  old  lady  lay  there  amid  all  the 
remaining  terrors  of  the  day;  the  house  was  riddled  with  balls, 
and  when  the  tide  of  battle  had  rolled  on  she  was  found  so 
badly  wounded  that  she  died  soon  after. 

During  the  thickest  of  the  fight  an  Irishman  on  the  Union 
side  was  startled  to  see  the  head  of  his  companion  on  the  left 
hand  knocked  off  by  a  cannon-ball.  A  few  moments  afterward 
a  spent  musket-ball  broke  the  fingers  of  his  comrade  on  the 
right.  The  latter  dropped  his  gun  and  yelled  with  pain. 
"Blasht   your  sowl,  you  ould  woman,"  cried  the   Irishman, 


*In  the  centre  are  the  ruins  of  Mrs.  Henry's  house;  in  the  background, 
through  the  opening,  is  Manassas  Junction ;  in  the  foreground,  at  the  left, 
is  a  small  monument  where  General  Bee  fell. 


98  BULL  RUN.  [1861. 

"  shtop  your  cryin;  you  make  more  noise  about  it  than  the  man 
that  losht  his  head!" 

The  Union  forces,  though  repeatedly  repulsed,  made  prepa- 
rations in  the  afternoon  for  a  last  grand  struggle,  when  on  their 
right  appeared  a  large  body  of  troops  marching  to  the  field. 
For  a  moment  all  was  in  suspense,  for  it  was  impossible  to  tell 
whether  the  flag  they  bore  was  the  Stars  and  Stripes  or  the 
Stars  and  Bars;  but  soon  cheer  after  cheer  from  the  wearied  Con- 
federate lines  told  the  Unionists  that  Kirby  Smith  and  Early 
had  come  with  the  remainder  of  Johnston's  Army  of  the  Shen- 
andoah. These  troops  had  been  moving  down  the  railroad  to 
Manassas  Junction,  but  the  train  was  stopped  at  the  point 
nearest  the  battle-field,  and  the  men  hurried  across  the  fields 
just  in  time  to  win  the  fight.  They  attacked  the  Union  right 
with  the  ardor  of  fresh  troops,  while  Beauregard  pressed  on  in 
front.  A  cry  ran  along  the  Union  lines,  "Johnston's  army  has 
come!"  and  at  once  a  wild  terror  seized  upon  all.  The  right, 
broken  and  disorganized,  fell  back  across  Young's  Branch  and 
toward  Sudley  Ford.  The  officers  tried  to  form  them  again, 
but  in  vain,  and  the  retreat  soon  became  a  rout.  They  fled 
across  Bull  Bun  toward  Centreville,  the  different  regiments 
mixed  together,  and  many  throwing  away  their  arms  and  accou- 
trements. Warren  ton  Turnpike  became  choked  with  train- 
wagons  and  artillery  carriages,  and  flying  teams  and  riderless 
horses  trampled  on  men,  while  the  air  was  black  with  dust  and 
the  smoke  of  battle.  Many  of  the  troops,  unable  to  get  along 
fast  enough  by  the  roads,  took  to  the  fields  and  woods,  all  run- 
ning wildly  across  the  country  as  if  the  Confederates  were  close 
on  their  heels.  At  Centreville  the  reserve  still  held  its  ground, 
but  the  panic-stricken  mob  could  not  be  stopped  until  the  forts 
on  the  Potomac  were  reached.  Many  did  not  stop  even  there, 
but  fled  across  the  Long  Bridge  to  Washington,  until  an  end 
was  finally  put  to  the  disgraceful  flight  by  closing  the  bridge. 
We  call  it  disgraceful  because  there  was  nothing  to  fear.  The 
centre  and  the  left  of  the  Union  line,  though  it  retreated 
quickly,  fell  back  in  such  good  order  that  the  Confederates  did 
not  think  it  best  to  pursue;  and  the  reserve  at  Centreville  held 
its  ground  until  midnight,  when  it  marched  back  to  the  Poto- 
mac. The  Confederates  were  too  nearly  used  up  for  pursuit; 
only  a  small  body  of  cavalry  followed  the  fugitives,  picking  up 


1861.]  DAVIS  AT  MANASSAS.  99 

stragglers,  and  the  victorious  army  did  not  advance  beyond  the 
defences  behind  Bull  Run. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  if  the  Confederates  had  pressed 
on  they  might  have  captured  Washington,  but  General  John- 
ston has  shown  that  it  was  impossible.  He  says  his  army  was 
more  disorganized  by  victory  than  the  Union  army  was  by  de- 
feat; that  his  men  were  unfit  for  marching  or  for  attacking  the 
strong  entrenchments  around  Washington,  defended  by  a  more 
numerous  enemy;  and  that  he  had  not  proper  supplies  of  food 
and  ammunition.  Even  if  he  had  succeeded  in  taking  the  for- 
tifications opposite  Washington,  the  Potomac  with  the  Union 
war-ships  in  it  would  have  protected  the  city. 

After  the  battle  was  ended,  President  Davis,  who  had  has- 
tened from  Richmond  by  the  railroad  in  hope  of  arriving  in 
time  to  take  part  in  the  battle,  came  up  from  Manassas  Junc- 
tion and  rode  over  the  field.  As  the  train  apjiroached  the 
Junction  he  had  seen  so  great  a  stream  of  skulkers  and  strag- 
glers running  to  the  rear  of  the  Confederate  troops  that  he 
made  up  his  mind  the  battle  was  lost.  His  first  words,  as  he 
shook  hands  with  General  Johnston,  were,  "  How  has  the  battle 
gone?"  and  he  was  agreeably  surprised  when  he  heard  the  result. 

So  little  did  men  in  Washington  in  those  clays  understand 
the  clangers  of  the  situation,  and  so  little  anxiety  had  they  in 
regard  to  the  result,  that  they  treated  McDowell's  advance 
against  the  Confederates  as  an  occasion  for  festivity,  and  many 
Congressmen  and  other  officials,  and  even  some  ladies,  drove  out 
to  Centreville  on  Sunday  morning  to  witness  the  end  of  the 
Confederacy.  Indeed,  so  general  was  the  belief  that  the  Grand 
Army  had  but  to  show  itself  to  cause  the  Confederates  to  melt 
away  like  mist  before  them,  that  a  chaplain  of  a  Connecticut 
regiment  had  prepared  a  sermon,  to  be  preached  after  the  vic- 
tory, from  the  text  "And  Manasseh  is  mine"  (Psalms  lx.  7). 
The  civilians  posted  themselves  at  General  Miles's  headcjuarters, 
on  the  heights  of  Centreville,  where  they  could  overlook  the- 
field,  and  with  wine  and  cigars  and  many  a  merry  jest  they 
passed  the  day  while  the  work  of  death  was  going  on  before 
them.  When  the  rout  began  and  the  fugitives  from  the  battle 
came  pouring  across  the  fields  upon  them,  many  of  their  cheeks 
became  white  with  fear  and  they  tried  to  escape  as  best  they 
might.     But  the  terrified  crowds  overtook  them,  their  carriages 


100  BULL  RUN.  [1861. 

were  smashed,  and  men  and  gayly  dressed  women  made  their  way 
back  to  the  Capital  as  they  best  could,  struggling  with' the  sol- 
diery to  escape  the  death  or  captivity  which  they  saw  behind  them. 
The  Confederates  had  at  Bull  Eun  about  twenty-seven 
thousand  men,  including  Johnston's  army.  McDowell  had  in 
all  about  twenty-eight  thousand,  a  part  of  whom  were  held  in 
reserve  at  Centreville  and  took  no  part  in  the  battle.  It  is 
probable  that  the  forces  actually  engaged  on  each  side  before  the 
day  was  over  were  very  nearly  equal,  but  the  Confederates  in 
their  reports  greatly  magnified  the  numbers  opposed  to  them 
and  made  their  own  smaller  than  they  really  were.  In  the 
address  to  their  army  by  Generals  Johnston  and  Beauregard 
after  the  battle,  the  Union  army  is  spoken  of  as  a  "  countless 
host,"  and  again  as  "nearly  treble  our  numbers."  In  the  de- 
spatch sent  by  President  Davis  to  the  Confederate  Congress  on 
the  night  following  the  battle,  he  said,  "  Our  force  was  fifteen 
thousand;  that  of  the  enemy  estimated  at  thirty-five  thousand." 
In  other  accounts  the  number  of  the  Union  army  was  put 
at  more  than  fifty  thousand  and  in  one  account  as  high  as 
eighty  thousand.  The  loss  of  the  Confederates  in  the  battle 
was  about  nineteen  hundred;  that  of  the  Unionists  about  fifteen 
hundred  killed  and  wounded  and  as  many  prisoners,  or  about 
three  thousand  in  all;  but  there  were  also  many  stragglers  who 
never  returned  to  their  regiments,  so  that  the  entire  loss  was 
nearly  four  thousand. 

Several  days  after  the  battle  one  of  these  stragglers,  to  call 
him  by  no  worse  name,  was  met  by  an  acquaintance  near  Wash- 
ington Market  in  New  York. 

"  Halloo!"  said  his  friend,  "what  are  you  doing  here?  Got 
leave  of  absence?" 

"No,"  said  the  fellow.  "  I  got  the  word  to  'fall  back'  at 
Bull  Run,  and  nobody  told  me  to  halt,  so  I  kept  on  retreating 
until  I  got  here." 

This  was  a  fair  sample  of  the  discipline  in  the  army  at  the 
time. 

A  negro  boy  who  was  employed  in  driving  an  ambulance, 
when  asked  about  his  experience  on  the  battle-field,  said,  "Ye 
see,  Massa,  I  was  a-drivin'  along  when  a  musket-ball  came  and 
killed  my  horse;  and  den,  pretty  soon,  a  shell  came  along,  and 
he  blow  my  wagon  all  to  pieces — and  den  I  got  off." 


1861.]  CONFEDERATE  HOPES.  101 

The  battle  of  Bull  Bun,  or  Manassas,  as  the  victors  chose  to 
call  it,  had  a  very  different  effect  upon  the  two  parties. 
Although  the  Confederates  had  won  in  the  struggle,  they  really 
gained  nothing  from  it,  and  some  of  their  writers  have  not 
hesitated  to  call  it  the  greatest  misfortune  that  could  have  hap- 
pened to  them.  The  larger  part  of  the  Southern  people  looked 
upon  it  as  the  end  of  the  war,  and  Confederate  newspapers 
boasted  of  the  prowess  of  the  sons  of  the  South,  and  openly 
asserted  that  one  Southerner  was  equal  to  five  Yankees  in  a 
stand-up  fight,  This  was  the  talk,  too,  of  their  orators,  and  even 
the  Confederate  officials  believed  that,  although  there  might  be 
a  few  more  skirmishes,  independence  was  virtually  attained. 
One  of  their  principal  historians  says  that  politicians  began  to 
discuss  who  should  be  the  next  President  of  the  Confederacy, 
although  the  election  was  nearly  six  years  distant,  and  the  dif- 
ferent States  disputed  which  of  their  cities  should  be  honored 
as  the  chosen  site  of  the  Confederate  Capital.  Thus,  inspired 
with  a  false  confidence  and  wholly  ignorant  of  the  deep-set 
determination  of  the  North  to  restore  the  Union  at  all  hazards, 
they  wasted  their  time  in  silly  glorification,  while  their  enemies 
diligently  went  to  work  to  retrieve  their  first  blunder.  But 
their  victory  had  for  them  one  good  effect.  Previous  to  it  there 
had  been  many  of  their  citizens  Avho,  if  not  professed  Unionists, 
had  been  lukewarm  in  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy;  but  after 
it  all  became  as  one  people,  and  devoted  their  money  and  their 
lives  to  the  new  government. 

The  news  of  the  defeat  was  received  very  differently  at  the 
North.  Union  orators,  clergymen,  and  newspapers  had  talked 
so  persistently  about  the  justice  and  holiness  of  the  cause  that 
the  people  had  begun  to  think  that  nothing  but  a  little  self- 
sacrifice  was  necessary  to  overcome  the  hosts  of  secession,  and 
that  the  right  would  prevail  no  matter  how  great  the  odds 
against  it.  This  opinion  was  strengthened  when  the  people 
rose  as  one  man  after  the  fall  of  Sumter  and  the  enthusiastic 
volunteers  marched  to  Washington,  and  everybody  looked  for- 
ward to  a  speedy  if  not  a  bloodless  campaign.  But  Bull  Bun 
largely  disabused  them  of  these  notions.  Those  who  met  the 
enemy  there  found  that  the  Confederates  were  inspired  with  no 
less  patriotism  and  self-sacrificing  devotion,  and  that  they  as 
firmly  believed  in  the  justice  of  their  cause  as  did  the  most 


102 


BULL  BUST. 


[1861. 


ardent  Unionists.  They  believed,  too,  that  the  war  against  them 
was  an  unjust  war  of  aggression,  for  which  there  was  no  author- 
ity under  the  Constitution — nay,  more,  that  the  contest  on  their 
part  was  the  last  great  struggle  on  this  continent  for  the  civil 
liberty  for  which  their  fathers  had  fought,  and  for  which  they 
were  as  willing  to  lay  down  their  lives  as  were  their  opponents 
in  defence  of  the  Union.  "You  have  fought  for  your  cause; 
I  die  for  mine,"  said  a  wounded  Georgian  with  a  smile,  as  a 

Union  soldier  gave  him  a 
cup  of  water  while  he  lay 
in  the  throes  of  death 
on  the  battle-field;  and 
many  like  instances  told 
the  brave  fellows  who 
bore  the  brunt  of  the  bat- 
tle on  the  Union  side  that 
the  newspapers  and  the 
politicians  had  deceived 
them  in  regard  to  the 
character  of  the  men  they 
were  to  meet. 

The  Unionists,  with 
their  eyes  thus  rudely 
opened,  saw  that  the 
country  had  before  it  a 


long 


and  terrible  strng- 


Bull  Run  Monument. 


gle,  which  would  tax  its 
resources  to  the  utmost; 
and  though  many  of  the 
best  men  quailed  before  the  immensity  of  the  task,  the  greater 
part  of  the  people  upheld  the  government  at  Washington  and 
determined  that  the  Union  must  be  preserved.  On  the  very 
Monday  (July  22)  when  the  panic-stricken  fugitives  from  Bull 
Run  filled  the  streets  of  Washington,  Congress  sat  all  day  in 
calm  deliberation,  and  the  House  of  Representatives  passed 
unanimously  the  following  resolution: 

"Resolved  That  the  maintenance  of  the  Constitution,  the 
preservation  of  the  Union,  and  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  are 
sacred  trusts  which  must  be  executed;  that  no  disaster  shall  dis- 
courage us  from  the  most  ample  performance  of  this  high  duty; 


1861.] 


MPGLELLAN  IN  COMMAND. 


103 


and  that  we  pledge  to  the  country  and  the  world  the  employ- 
ment of  every  resource,  national  and  individual,  for  the  sup- 
pression, overthrow,  and  punishment  of  rebels  in  arms." 

Sentiment  was  now  laid  aside,  and  preparation  for  the  strug- 
gle began  in  dread  earnest.  General  McClellan,  who  had  won 
the  confidence  of  all  by  his  successes  in  Western  Virginia,  was 
called  to  Washington  the  day  after  Bull  Run  and  put  in  com- 
mand of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  The  whole  North  went  to 
work  with  aii  energy  unknown  before.  Money  was  raised, 
armies  set  on  foot,  and  navies  built  in  the  long  months  of  mili- 
tary inactivity  which  followed  Bull  Eun,  for  the  South,  repos- 
ing in  fancied  security  upon  its  laurels,  made  no  attempt  to 
follow  up  its  success,  and  the  spring  of  1862  found  the  Union 
fully  prepared  to  grapple  with  its  foe,  whom  it  had  learned  no 
longer  to  despise. 

Four  years  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  when  the  war  had 
ended,  a  monument  was  built  on  the  field  by  some  Massachu- 
setts and  Pennsylvania  soldiers,  in  memory  of  their  comrades 
who  fell  in  the  fight.  It  stands  on  a  mound,  not  far  from  the 
site  of  Mrs.  Henry's  house,  on  the  place  where  the  struggle 
raged  fiercest.  The  illustration  gives  a  very  good  idea  of  it. 
The  monument  is  of  sandstone,  with  a  100-pounder  shell  on 
the  top,  and  similar  shells  are  placed  at  each  corner  of  the  base. 
It  bears  the  inscription: 

In  Memory  of  the  Patriots  who  pell  at  Bull  Run, 

July  21,  1861. 


Common  Bayonet. 


Trowel  Bayonet. 


Sword  Bayonet. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
BOONVILLE.— WILSON'S  CEEEK. 

Military  Importance  of  Cairo.— Bird's  Point.— Lyon  in  Command  in  Missouri.— Governor 
Jackson  calls  for  Volunteers  against  the  Union.— Battle  of  Boonville.— Fight 
near  Carthage.— Franz  Sigel's  Retreat.— Fremont  in  Command  in  the  West.— Ben 
Mcculloch.— Battle  at  Dug  Spring.— Wilson's  Creek.— The  Confederates  sur- 
prised.—A  False  Flag.— Where  is  Sigel?— Death  of  Lyon.— Eetreat  to  Spring- 
field.— Story  of  Eddy,  the  Drummer-Boy. 

WE  must  now  return  to  the  West  and  see  what  has  been 
taking  place  there  during  these  stirring  events  around 
Washington.  A  glance  at  the  map  will  show  how  Illinois,  Ken- 
tucky, and  Missouri  come  together  nearly  in  a  point  at  the 
junction  of  the  Ohio  with  the  Mississippi  Eiver,  while  a  part 
of  Tennessee  lies  on  the  Mississippi  opposite  Missouri  but  a 
little  way  below  the  junction.  It  was  considered  very  impor- 
tant by  both  parties  in  the  beginning  of  the  war  to  get  posses- 
sion of  the  great  rivers,  because  troops  and  munitions  of  war 
could  be  transported  much  more  easily  by  water  than  over  land. 
The  Confederates  saw  that  if  they  could  establish  themselves  at 
Cairo,  in  Illinois,  on  the  point  between  the  Ohio  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi, they  could  keep  the  Unionists  from  coming  down  the 
Ohio  and  going  up  the  Mississippi  to  St.  Louis,  and  could  also 
shut  them  out  from  the  lower  Mississippi,  which  below  that 
point  ran  wholly  through  slave  States.  But  the  Unionists,  alive 
to  the  importance  of  the  place,  were  too  quick  for  them,  and  in 
May,  1861,  they  established  a  camp  there  of  several  thousand 
men,  who  threw  up  strong  earthworks,  mounted  with  heavy 
cannon,  commanding  both  rivers.  After  that,  steamboats  and 
other  vessels  were  obliged  to  stop  there  and  report  to  the  com- 
mandant before  being  allowed  to  pass  either  up  or  down. 

Cairo  stands  on  ground  so  low  that  but  for  its  levee,  or  earth 
embankment  thrown  up  along  both  rivers,  it  would  often  be 
overflowed.  Directly  opposite,  in  Missouri,  is  Bird's  Point,  on 
a  bluff  higher  than  Cairo;  and  as  cannon  placed  there  would 
command  the  Union  position,  it  was  occupied  by  Missouri 
Union  volunteers,  who  threw  up  earthworks  and  constructed  a 
strong  camp.  The  Confederates,  thus  foiled,  began  to  form 
plans  for  the  capture  of  Cairo. 


1861.] 


LYON  AND  SIOEL. 


105 


Meanwhile  General  Lyon,  who  by  his  energy  had  preserved 
the  city  of  St.  Lonis  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  dis- 
unionists,  had  been  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  Union 
forces  in  Missouri,  in  place  of  General  Harney.  Governor  Jack- 
son, who  had  assembled  his  legislature  at  Jefferson  City,  the 
capital  of  the  State,  issued  a  proclamation  (June  12)  calling  for 
fifty  thousand  volunteers  to  drive  the  Union  troops,  whom  he 
called  invaders,  out  of  Missouri.  Major-General  Sterling  Price, 
who  had  been  made  commander  of  the  State  forces,  and  the  sev- 
eral brigadier-generals  under  him  were  ordered  to  organize  the 
militia  as  soon  as  possible,  and  gather  them  at  Boonville  and 
Lexington,  two  places 
on  the  Missouri  River, 
northwest  of  Jeffer- 
son City. 

General  Lyon,  de- 
termined to  break  up 
this  force  at  once, 
started  with  two  thou- 
sand men  on  two 
steamboats  from  St. 
Louis,  June  13,  and 
arrived  at  Jefferson 
City  two  days  after- 
ward ;  but  Jackson, 
hearing  of  his  com- 
ing, had  gone  to  Boon- 
ville. General  Lyon 
followed,  and  on  Mon- 
day, June  17,  after  a 
brisk  light,  dispersed  the  force  there  with  but  small  loss  to 
either  side;  but  many  prisoners  were  taken,  most  of  them 
youths  under  age,  who  were  released  next  day  on  promising 
not  to  take  up  arms  again  against  the  United  States.  The 
Confederates  retreated  southward  toward  Arkansas,  where  they 
expected  General  Ben  McCulloch  to  come  to  their  aid,  and  being- 
joined  by  the  troops  at  Lexington  and  by  others,  soon  formed 
a  well-organized  body  of  nearly  four  thousand  men. 

Meanwhile   another   Union   army,    about   fifteen   hundred 
strong,  under  Colonel  Franz  Sigel,  had  gone  by  railroad  from 


Union  Camp  at  Cairo. 


f 


106 


BOONVILLE.— WILSON'S  CREEK. 


[1861. 


St.  Louis  to  Rolla,  the  end  of  the  road,  and  marched  thence  td 
Springfield.  Hearing  of  Jackson's  flight,  he  pushed  on  after 
him,  and  met  the  Confederates  near  Carthage  on  the  morning 
of  July  5.  Sigel's  force  was  much  inferior  to  that  of  the  enemy, 
but  he  had  the  most  artillery.  He  took  a  strong  position  on  a 
hill,  where  he  defended  himself  successfully  for  three  or  four 
hours,  but  finally  the  Confederates,  who  were  mostly  mounted 
men,  sent  their  cavalry  to  his  right  and  left,  and  he  was  obliged 
to  fall  back  to  keep  his  baggage-train,  which  was  three  miles  in 
his  rear,  from  falling  into  their  hands.  Hard  pressed  by  the 
Confederates,  and  sometimes  nearly  surrounded,  he  retreated 
to  Carthage,  and  finally  to  Springfield,  where  he  was  joined 

(July  10)  by  General  Lyon,  who, 
being  the  higher  in  rank,  took 
command  of  the  whole  force. 
Sigel's  masterly  retreat  in  the 
face  of  numbers  so  greatly  supe- 
rior to  his  own  won  him  much 
praise,  and  to  ''fight  mit  Sigel" 
became  a  by-word  among  the 
Union  men  of  Missouri. 

The  next  day  after  the  bat- 
tle, General  Sterling  Price,  who 
had  been  too  ill  to  take  part  in 
it,  arrived  at  Carthage  with 
General  Ben  McCulloch  and  a 
reinforcement  of  Arkansas  troops.  The  Confederates  now  over- 
ran all  southwestern  Missouri,  General  Lyon  with  his  small 
force  still  remaining  at  Springfield  waiting  for  reinforcements. 
The  greater  part  of  his  troops  were  three-months  men,  whose 
time  was  nearly  up,  and,  the  Unionists  of  the  West  having  been 
greatly  discouraged  by  the  result  at  Bull  Run,  it  was  very  hard 
to  raise  more  volunteers.  General  John  C.  Fremont  had  mean- 
while been  appointed  (July  9)  to  the  command  of  the  West,  but 
lie  did  not  arrive  at  St.  Louis  until  near  the  end  of  the  month 
(July  25).  He  took  no  proper  measures  to  reinforce  General 
Lyon,  nor  did  he  order  him  to  retreat  from  Springfield;  so 
Lyon  was  left  to  do  the  best  he  could  under  the  circumstances. 
Many  of  his  officers  thought  he  ought  to  fall  back  from 
Springfield,  but  others  objected  that  such  a  movement  would 


Franz  Sigel. 


1861.] 


MCCULLOCH  AND  PRICE. 


107 


leave  all  that  part  of  Missouri  open  to  the  Confederates ;  so  it 
was  determined  to  attack  the  enemy,  though  they  were  known 
to  be  greatly  superior  in  number. 

But  the  Confederates,  who  had  received  reinforcements  of 
Arkansas,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  troops,  had  also  made  up  their 
minds  to  fight.  All  their  forces,  consisting  of  about  twelve 
thousand  effective  men,  half  of  whom  were  horsemen,  with  fif- 
teen guns,  were  collected  at  Cassville  and  marched  from  there 
toward  Springfield  in  three  divisions,  part  on  the  1st  and  part 
on  the  2d  of  August.  The  command  was  held  by  General 
McCulloch,  who  was  a  Confederate  brigadier-general,  while  Price 
was  only  a  State  officer.  Early  in  the  morning  of  Friday, 
August  2,  the  first  division 
was  met  by  General  Lyon, 
with  a  force  of  about  six 
thousand  men  and  eighteen 
guns,  at  a  place  called  Dug 
Spring,  and  after  a  sharp 
fight  defeated  and  driven 
back.  The  Confederates, 
the  rest  of  whose  troops  soon 
came  up  and  joined  the  de- 
feated division,  pressed  on 
in  hope  of  again  fighting 
Lyon  near  the  scene  of  the 
battle,  but  they  found  that 
he  had  retreated  toward 
Springfield.  The  weather  was  hot  and  the  roads  very  dusty, 
but  the  Confederates  followed  him  about  seventeen  miles,  when 
they  were  compelled  to  halt  for  rest,  the  men  being  nearly  ex- 
hausted. The  next  morning  they  moved  forward  and  took  a 
position  on  Wilson's  Creek,  about  ten  miles  southwest  of  Spring- 
field, where  they  made  ready  for  an  attack.  General  McCulloch 
gave  orders  to  march  on  Springfield  at  nine  o'clock  on  Friday 
night  (August  9),  but  a  threatened  storm  caused  them  to  be 
countermanded,  and  the  troops  were  ordered  to  hold  them- 
selves in  readiness  for  an  advance.  They  therefore  kept  under 
arms  all  night,  every  moment  expecting  to  march. 

In  the  mean  time  General  Lyon,  who  had  news  of  McCul- 
loch's  coming,  determined  to  surprise  him  if  possible.     So,  on 


Ben  McCulloch. 


108 


BOONVILLE. — WILSON '8  CREEK. 


11861. 


the  very  night  on  which  McCulloch  had  intended  to  move  upon 
him  (Aug.  9)  he  marched-  out  of  Springfield  in  two  columns. 
General  Sigel,  with  one  brigade  and  a  battery  of  six  guns,  was 
sent  in  a  southerly  direction  with  orders  to  attack  the  enemy  in 
the  rear,  while  General  Lyon  himself,  in  command  of  the  main 
body,  was  to  attack  in  front.     The  plan  was  well  executed,  and 


Plan  op  the  Battle  op  Wilson's  Creek. 


about  daybreak  of  Saturday,  August  10,  both  columns  came 
in  sight  of  the  Confederate  encampments  before  the  enemy 
knew  of  their  coming.  The  valley  of  Wilson's  Creek,  lying 
between  high  bluffs  on  one  side  and  sloping  hills  on  the  other, 
was  white  with  a  thousand  tents  which  extended  in  many 
places  up  the  hillsides  and  in  the  ravines  which  opened  into  the 
main  valley.  The  Confederates,  not  expecting  an  attack,  kept 
a  poor  watch,  and  when  the  two  Union  columns  ojjened  fire 


1861.] 


BATTLE  OF  WILSON'S  CREEK. 


109 


upon  them  at  nearly  the  same  time  they  were  at  first  thrown 

into  confusion.     They  gave  way  before  Sigel,  and  he  succeeded 

in  placing  his  artillery  on  the  hills  so  that  he  cotild  open  a 

destructive  fire  on  those  in  the  valley.     But  the  Confederates 

soon  saw  how  small  his  force  was,  and  a  Louisiana  regiment, 

carrying  a  United  States  flag,  succeeded  in  getting  very  near  to 

his  artillery,  Sigel  supposing  all  the  while  that  it  was  a  part  of 

Lyon's  force  coming  to  his  aid.     When  the  mistake  Avas  found 

out  it  was  too  late.     Sigel's  first  line  was  thrown  into  confusion 

by  the  Louisianians,  who  were  followed  by  some  Texans  and  a 

regiment  of  Missouri  cavalry, 

and  his  whole  force  was  soon 

routed,  with  the  loss  of  five 

pieces   of  artillery.      Few  of 

Sigel's  men  were  killed,  but  two 

or  three  hundred  were  taken 

prisoners,   and  the  rest,  being 

mostly     three-months      men, 

whose   time    was    nearly    up, 

made  the  best  of  their  way  to 

Springfield  and  thence  to  their 

homes. 

On  the  other  side,  General 
Lyon  had  at  first  met  with  suc- 
cess, the  Confederates  being  thrown  into  confusion.  But  their 
officers,  knowing  their  superiority  in  numbers,  rallied  them 
again  and  again  to  the  attack,  and  nothing  but  the  Union 
artillery,  well  posted  on  the  hills,  saved  Lyon  and  his  brave  men 
from  being  overrun.  General  Lyon  watched  in  vain  for  Sigel, 
from  whom  no  news  had  been  received;  and  his  own  guns  had 
kept  up  such  a  continuous  fire  that  the  sound  of  Sigel's  artillery, 
though  only  three  miles  away,  had  not  been  heard.  About 
half-past  eight  o'clock  there  was  a  lull  in  the  fighting,  and  the 
wearied  Unionists  began  to  hope  that  their  attack  had  been  suc- 
cessful; but  the  Confederates  who  had  crushed  Sigel  soon 
arrived  to  aid  their  friends,  and  another  fierce  assault  was  made 
on  the  Union  lines.  The  hills  were  covered  with  brushwood, 
and  the  two  hostile  lines  were  often  little  more  than  a  hundred 
yards  from  each  other.  The  hum  of  the  musket  and  ri  fle  balls  was 
incessant,  and  manv  officers  were  killed  and  wounded  on  both 


Nathaniel  Lyon. 


HO  BOONVILLE.— WILSON'S  CREEK.  [1861. 

sides  while  urging  their  men  to  the  attack.  General  Lyon,  who 
rode  a  beautiful  dapple-gray  horse,  was  in  the  thickest  of  the 
fight.  He  was  twice  struck  by  rifle-balls,  and  soon  his  horse 
was  killed  under  him.  Major  Sturgis  offered  him  his  own  horse, 
and  the  General,  mounting  it,  ordered  a  bayonet  charge  along 
the  line.  Bleeding  from  his  two  wounds,  one  of  which  was  in 
his  head,  Lyon  swung  his  hat  in  the  air  and  shouted,  "  Come 
on,  brave  men,  I  will  lead  you!"  but  just  then  a  bullet  struck 
him  in  the  breast,  and  he  fell  from  his  horse  mortally  wounded. 
His  lifeless  body  was  carried  to  the  rear  and  put  into  an  ambu- 
lance, and  Major  Sturgis  took  command  of  the  troops. 

The  Confederates  now  tried  the  same  trick  they  had  jjlayed 
so  successfully  on  Sigel,  and  sent  forward  a  body  of  troops  carry- 
ing the  Union  flag.  Sturgis  and  his  men,  supposing  them  to 
be  Sigel's  column,  hailed  them  with  cheers,  to  which  the  Con- 
federates replied  with  a  heavy  fire  of  canister  from  their  artillery. 
As  it  was  known  that  the  Confederates  had  no  canister  shot,  it 
was  evident  to  all  that  Sigel's  guns  and  ammunition  had  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  But  notwithstanding  this  disap- 
pointment and  the  loss  of  their  leader,  the  Unionists  held  their 
ground  bravely  against  this  new  attack,  and  the  enemy  were 
again  driven  back.  The  Confederates  had  now  nearly  used  up 
their  ammunition  and  made  no  further  attack,  but  took  up  a 
position  on  the  hills  to  watch  the  enemy.  It  was  half-past 
eleven  o'clock,  and  the  fight  having  raged  for  nearly  six  hours 
and  there  being  no  hope  of  continuing  it  with  success,  it  was 
determined  to  withdraw  to  Springfield.  The  enemy  offered  no 
resistance;  the  army  fell  back  slowly  and  in  good  order,  and 
reached  Springfield  about  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  That 
place  being  unfortified  and  it  being  very  hard  to  get  provisions, 
the  Union  forces  fell  back,  under  the  command  of  Sigel,  to 
Eolla,  at  the  end  of  the  railroad  to  St.  Louis,  the  Confederates 
making  no  attempt  to  molest  them. 

This  battle,  which  was  among  the  hardest-fought  ones  of 
the  whole  war,  was  called  by  the  Unionists  the  battle  of  Wilson's 
Creek,  and  by  the  Confederates  the  battle  of  Oak  Bluff.  The 
loss  of  the  Unionists  in  it  was  between  twelve  and  thirteen  hun- 
dred in  killed  and  wounded,  while  that  of  the  Confederates  was 
nearly  three  thousand.  In  the  hurry  of  retreat  the  body  of 
General  Lyon  was  left  on  the  field,  but  the  next  morning  a  sur- 


1861.]  EDDY  THE  DRUMMER  BOY.  \\\ 

geon  and  some  men  were  sent  for  it,  and  General  Price  had  it 
conveyed  to  Springfield  in  his  own  wagon. 

This  victory  of  the  Confederates — for  it  was  really  a  victory, 
although  they  were  unable  to  follow  it  up — gave  them  the  com- 
mand of  all  southern  Missouri.  But  McCulloch  and  Price 
could  not  agree  upon  what  to  do  next.  They  therefore  separated, 
McCulloch  going  back  with  his  troops  to  Arkansas,  while  Price 
marched  northwest,  gathering  recruits  as  he  went. 

An  affecting  incident  of  the  battle  of  Wilson's  Creek  is  the 
story  of  little  Eddy,  the  drummer-boy,  who  was  mortally 
wounded  there.  His  father,  a  Union  man  of  East  Tennessee, 
had  been  killed,  and  his  mother  had  gone  to  St.  Louis  with 
Eddy,  then  about  twelve  years  old,  in  hope  of  finding  a  sister 
who  lived  there.  Failing  in  this,  and  getting  out  of  money,  she 
applied  to  the  captain  of  one  of  the  companies  in  the  Iowa  First 
to  get  Eddy  a  position  as  drummer-boy.  The  regiment  had 
only  six  weeks  longer  to  serve,  and  she  hoped  that  during  that 
time  she  might  find  work  for  herself  and  discover  her  sister. 
The  captain  was  about  to  say  that  he  could  not  take  so  small  a 
boy,  when  Eddy  spoke  out,  "Don't  be  afraid,  captain,  I  can 
drum." 

Upon  this  the  captain,  seeing  the  little  fellow's  determined 
air,  replied,  with  a  smile,  "  Well,  well,  sergeant,  bring  the 
drum,  and  order  the  fifer  to  come  forward." 

The  fifer,  a  lank,  round-shouldered  fellow,  more  than  six 
feet  high,  came  forward,  and  bending  down  with  his  hands  on 
his  knees,  asked,  "My  little  man,  can  you  drum?" 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Eddy,  "I  drummed  for  Captain  Hill  in 
Tennessee." 

The  fifer  straightened  himself  up  and  played  the  "Flowers 
of  Edinburgh,"  one  of  the  most  difficult  tunes  to  follow  with 
the  drum,  but  Eddy  kept  pace  with  him  through  all  the  hardest 
parts  and  showed  that  he  was  a  master  of  the  drum. 

"Madam,  I  will  take  your  boy,"  said  the  captain.  "What 
is  his  name?" 

"Edward  Lee,"  she  replied,  wiping  a  tear  from  her  eye. 
"Oh!  captain,  if  he  is  not  killed,  you  will  bring  him  back  with 
you,  won't  you?" 

"Yes,  we'll  be  sure  to  bring  him  back.  We  shall  be  dis- 
charged in  six  weeks." 


112  BOONVILLE.—  WILSON'S  CREEK.  [1861. 

An  hour  afterward  the  company  led  the  Iowa  First  out  of 
camp,  Eddy  and  the  long  fifer  playing  "  The  Girl  I  left  Behind 
Me."  Eddy  soon  became  a  great  favorite  with  the  soldiers, 
and  always  received  his  share  of  fruit  and  melons  when  the  for- 
agers brought  any  to  camp.  It  was  very  amusing  on  the  march 
to  see  the  tall  fifer  wading  through  the  mud  or  crossing  streams 
with  Eddy  mounted  on  his  back. 

After  the  battle  at  Wilson's  Creek  part  of  the  Iowa  First 
had  been  ordered  to  cover  the  retreat,  while  the  main  body  fell 
back  to  Springfield.  A  corporal  who  was  posted  on  a  hill  over- 
looking the  battle-ground  heard  a  drum.  At  first  he  thought 
it  came  from  the  enemy  across  the  creek,  but  when  he 
listened  attentively  he  recognized  the  sound  of  Eddy's  drum. 
The  company  was  to  march  in  twenty  minutes,  but  not  liking 
to' leave  the  little  fellow,  the  corporal  ran  down  the  hill  in  the 
direction  of  the  sound.  He  soon  found  Eddy  seated  on  the 
ground  with  his  back  against  the  trunk  of  a  fallen  tree,  and  his 
drum  hung  on  a  bush  where  he  could  reach  it. 

"  0  corporal,"  he  exclaimed,  "I  am  so  glad  you  have  come. 
Give  me  a  drink." 

The  corporal  brought  him  some  water  from  a  brook  near  by, 
and  after  drinking  heartily  Eddy  said: 

"  You  don't  think  I  will  die,  corporal,  do  you?  This  man 
said  I  would  not;  he  said  the  surgeon  would  cure  my  feet." 

The  corporal  then  discovered  that  both  of  Eddy's  feet  had 
been  shot  off  by  a  cannon-ball;  and  looking  round,  he  saw  a 
Confederate  soldier  lying  dead  in  the  grass.  The  man  had 
fallen  mortally  wounded  near  where  Eddy  lay.  Seeing  the 
condition  of  the  poor  boy,  although  he  himself  was  bleeding  to 
death,  he  had  crept  up  to  him,  taken  off  his  suspenders  and 
tied  up  Eddy's  legs  below  the  knee,  and  then  lain  down  to  die. 
While  Eddy  was  telling  this,  some  Confederate  cavalry  rode  up 
and  made  the  two  friends  prisoners.  The  Confederate  captain 
took  Eddy  up  tenderly  on  his  horse  before  him,  and  the  party 
started  for  the  camp,  but  before  it  was  reached  the  little 
drummer  was  dead. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
LEXINGTON.— BELMONT. 

General  Bishop  Polk.— Fremont's  Proclamation.— a  Politic  Contraband.— Price  at- 
tacks Lexington.— Mulligan's  Brave  Defence.— Precious  Water.— Surrender  of 
Lexington.— No  Ammunition  left.— General  Pillow  at  New  Madrid. — The  Confeder- 
ates seize  Columbus.— Island  Number  Ten.— Zollicoffer  and  Buckner  invade  Ken- 
tucky.—Confederate  Camp  at  Bowling  Green.— Fremont  marches  to  Springfield.— 
Zagonyi's  Charge.— Major  White's  Adventure.— Fremont  superseded.— General 
Halleck  in  Command  in  Missouri.— Sterling  Price  and  his  Men.— Jeff.  Thompson.— 
General  Grant  at  Cairo.— Battle  of  Belmont.— General  Cheatham's  Escape. 

ABOUT  this  time  the  Confederate  General  Leonidas  Polk 
began  to  be  active  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  He  was  a 
graduate  of  the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  but  resigned 
after  leaving  there,  and  became  a  minister  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church.  He  was  very  successful  as  a  clergyman,  and 
in  1841  was  chosen  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Louisiana.  When 
the  war  broke  out  the  Confederate  authorities,  desiring  to  avail 
themselves  of  his  military  skill,  offered  him  the  rank  of  major- 
general  in  the  army.  In  July,  1861,  he  accepted  the  position, 
and  was  given  the  command  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  between 
the  Arkansas  River  and  Kentucky.  He  saw  the  necessity  either 
of  winning  Cairo  or  of  gaining  some  other  point  by  which  the 
Mississippi  River  could  be  commanded,  and  under  his  orders 
General  Hardee  crossed  over  into  Missouri  with  a  small  force  in 
July,  and  at  the  end  of  that  month  General  Pillow,  comman- 
der of  the  Tennessee  forces  in  the  Confederate  service,  crossed 
to  New  Madrid  below  Cairo  and  fortified  it,  partly  for  the  pur- 
pose of  keeping  Union  gunboats  from  going  down  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  partly  to  secure  a  place  from  which  he  could  attack 
Bird's  Point,  opposite  Cairo. 

General  Fremont,  hearing  that  Hardee  was  marching  to- 
ward Ironton,  sent  reinforcements  there  and  to  Cape  Girardeau, 
and  went  himself  with  about  four  thousand  men,  by  steamboat, 
to  Bird's  Point,  where  he  landed  the  troops  and  returned  to 
St.  Louis  (August  4).  As  soon  as  the  news  of  General  Lyon's 
defeat  and  death  was  received,  he  set  about  fortifying  St.  Louis. 
He  also  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  martial  law  in  Missouri; 
ordering  that  all  persons  taken  within  his  lines  with  arms  in 


114 


LEXINGTON.— BELMONT. 


[1861. 


their  hands  should  be  shot,  and  declaring  the  slaves  of  all  rebels 
in  the  State  to  be  free  men.  This  proclamation  was  afterward 
changed  by  order  of  President  Lincoln,  because  the  freeing  of 
slaves  was  contrary  to  law. 

The  negroes,  during  these  exciting  times,  when  first  one 
party  and  then  the  other  was  in  power,  were  smart  enough -'to 
shout  one  day  for  the  Union  and  the  next  for  the  Confed- 
eracy. 

"Boys,"  said  a  Union  officer  to  a  group  of  field-hands  by 
the  roadside  watching  the  troops  pass  by,  "  are  you  all  for  the 
Union  ?" 

"Oh  yes,  massa,  when  you's  about  we  is." 
"And  when  Price  comes  you  are  secesh,  are  you?" 
"Lor,  yes,  massa,  we's  good  secesh  then.     Cant  'low  white 

folks  to  git  'head  o'  niggers 
in  dat  way.     Yah!  yah!" 

On  the  7th  of  September 
General  Price  defeated  a 
Union  force  from  Kansas, 
which  had  marched  into  Mis- 
souri under  command  of 
General  James  H.  Lane;  and 
leaving  a  small  garrison  in 
Fort  Scott,  on  the  borders  of 
Kansas,  he  marched  toward 
Lexington,  on  the  Missouri 
Eiver,  with  more  than  ten 
thousand  men.  Lexington 
was  then  a  small  city  of  about  five  thousand  inhabitants,  situ- 
ated on  the  south  bank  of  the  Missouri,  nearly  three  hundred 
miles  by  the  river  above  St.  Louis.  Its  possession  was  of  some 
importance,  because  it  commanded  the  river  at  that  point  and 
the  route  to  Fort  Leavenworth.  When  Price  reached  Lexing- 
ton (September  12)  he  found  it  guarded  by  about  three  thou- 
sand five  hundred  Union  troops,  under  command  of  Colonel 
James  A.  Mulligan,  of  the  Irish  Brigade  of  Chicago.  Mulligan 
had  fortified  a  hill,  northeast  of  the  city,  on  which  was  a 
brick  building  erected  for  a  college,  by  throwing  up  an  earth- 
work ten  feet  high  around  it.  In  the  middle  were  placed  the 
wagons  and  about  three  thousand  horses  and  mules.     Price  at 


Leonidas  Polk. 


1861.] 


SIEGE  OF  LEXINGTON. 


115 


once  opened  a  fire  on  the  works,  but  the  Unionists  defended 
themselves  bravely,  and  the  Confederates  at  last  began  a  regu 
lar  siege.  There  were  at  this  time  about  ten  thousand  Union 
troops  at  Jefferson  City,  under  General  Jeff.  C.  Davis,  and  five 
thousand  more,  under  General  John  Pope,  were  moving  from 
north  Missouri  toward  the  river,  but  Colonel  Mulligan  looked 
in  vain  for  reinforcements. 

Volunteers  meanwhile  flocked  to  Price  until  his  force  was 
swelled  to  more  than  twenty  thousand  men.  lie  completely 
surrounded  the  hill  on  which  the  Unionists  were  intrenched, 
thus  cutting  them  off  from  the  river,  from  which  they  got  their 
water.  The  situation  of  the  besieged  was  desperate.  The 
weather  was  intensely  hot,  their  provisions  were  beginning  to 


*°Jn  LEXINGTON    "^  .,     t%       i      Ji    ~;^L</      4-  H       lJA' 


Siege  of  Lexington. 

give  out,  their  ammunition  was  nearly  spent,  and  the  only 
drinking-water  to  be  had  was  a  little  rain-water  caught  during 
passing  showers.  To  get  all  the  precious  fluid  they  could,  the 
men  laid  their  blankets  out  in  the  rain,  and  then  wrung  them 
into  camp-dishes.  To  make  matters  worse,  the  shot  and  shell 
which  continually  fell  inside  the  works  from  the  enemy's  guns 
had  killed  many  of  the  horses  and  mules,  and  the  stench  from 
their  bodies  had  become  almost  unbearable.  But  Mulligan  and 
his  brave  men,  hoping  that  aid  would  be  sent  to  them,  still 
struggled  on.  On  the  19th  a  force  of  four  thousand  cavalry, 
under  General  Sturgis,  who  had  been  promoted  for  his  gallantry 
at  Wilson/s  Creek,  arrived  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  in 
full  sight  of  the  besieged,  but  found  the  shore  strongly  occupied 


116  LEXINGTON.— BELMONT.  [1861. 

by  the  enemy,  and  had  to  retire.  On  the  morning  of  Septem- 
ber 20  Price  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  garrison.  Mulli- 
gan replied,  "  If  you  want  us,  you  must  take  us."  The  Con- 
federates then  made  movable  breastworks  of  bales  of  hemp, 
and  pushed  them  up  to  within  ten  rods  of  the  Union  earth- 
works. At  the  same  time  some  of  the  Missouri  Home  Guards 
raised  a  white  flag  and  refused  to  fight  any  longer.  Mulligan 
saw  that  there  was  no  further  hope,  for  his  ammunition  was 
nearly  gone,  and  agreed  to  surrender.  All  the  cannon  and 
small-arms  were  given  up  to  the  victors,  and  the  officers  were 
held  as  prisoners  of  war,  but  all  the  private  soldiers  were 
paroled — that  is,  they  were  allowed  to  go  free  on  promising  not 
to  fight  again  against  the  Confederates  until  regularly  ex- 
changed. The  Union  loss  was  forty  killed  and  one  hundred 
and  twenty  wounded.  Price  reported  his  loss  at  twenty-five 
killed  and  seventy-five  wounded,  but  it  is  thought  to  have  been 
much  greater. 

After  the  surrender  Price  sent  an  officer  to  collect  all  the 
ammunition,  which  was  almost  as  scarce  in  his  army  as  with 
Mulligan.  The  officer  called  a  Union  adjutant  named  Cos- 
grove,  and  asked  him  to  give  up  what  ammunition  was  left. 
Cosgrove  called  up  a  dozen  men,  one  after  another,  and  show- 
ing their  empty  cartridge-boxes  to  the  astonished  Confederate, 
said,  "  I  believe,  sir,  we  gave  you  all  the  ammunition  we  had 
before  we  stopped  fighting.  Had  there  been  any  more,  upon 
my  word,  you  should  have  had  it,  sir." 

General  Pillow,  at  New  Madrid,  had  meanwhile  been  receiv- 
ing many  reinforcements,  and  was  making  ready  to  attack  Cairo. 
Up  to  this  time  Kentucky  had  remained  neutral — that  is,  it  had 
not  taken  sides  with  either  party  in  the  struggle,  though  a 
large  majority  of  her  people  were  for  the  Union.  Both  parties 
had  respected  this  neutrality,  but  on  the  4th  of  September  Gen- 
eral Polk  seized  Hickman  and  Columbus,  on  the  Kentucky  side 
of  the  Mississippi  River.  General  Polk  gave  as  his  reason  for 
doing  this  that  the  Union  troops  were  getting  ready  to  occupy 
Columbus,  but  it  was  probably  a  part  of  the  plan  for  getting 
possession  of  Cairo,  only  about  twenty  miles  above  Columbus. 
At  the  same  time  General  Powill  was  ordered  to  withdraw  from 
New  Madrid  and  take  his  whole  force  to  Island  Number  Ten, 
an  island  in  the  Mississippi  about  forty  miles  below  Columbus, 


1861.] 


ULYSSES  S.    GRANT. 


Ill 


About  the  same  time  that  General  Polk  took  Columbus,  a  Con- 
federate force  under  General  Felix  K.  Zollicoffer  entered  East- 
ern Kentucky  from  Tennessee. 

The  country  around  Cairo  was  then  under  the  command  of 
General  Ulysses  S.  Grant.  General  Grant  was  a  graduate  of 
West  Point,  and  had  served  bravely  in  the  war  with  Mexico, 
having  been  made  a  captain  for  gallantry.  In  1854  he  resigned 
from  the  army,  and  was  engaged  in  business  in  Illinois  when 
the  war  broke  out.  Being  chosen  captain  of  a  company  of  vol- 
unteers, he  showed  so  much  skill  that  he  was  made  colonel  of 


Fortifications  on  Bluff  at  Columbus,  with  Gen.  Polk's  Headquarters. 

the  Twenty-first  Illinois  (June  17,  1861).  In  August  he  be- 
came a  brigadier-general  of  volunteers,  and  was  given  command 
at  Cairo.  As  soon  as  he  heard  of  General  Polk's  invasion  of 
Kentucky  he  took  possession  of  Paducah,  at  the  junction  of  the 
Tennessee  with  the  Ohio,  thus  getting  ahead  of  the  Confeder- 
ates, who  were  reported  to  be  marching  on  it.  About  the  same 
time  General  Simon  B.  Buckner,  a  Kentuckian  in  the  Confed- 
erate service,  entered  Kentucky  with  a  considerable  force,  and 
moved  rapidly  on  the  railroad  from  Nashville  toward  Louisville, 
in  hope  of  surprising  that  important  city  on  the  Ohio  before 
news  of  his  coming  could  reach  there.  The  telegraph  wires 
being  cut,  and  no  trains  reaching  Louisville,  a  locomotive  was 


118 


LEXING  TON.— BELMONT. 


[1861. 


sent  down  the  road  to  see  what  the  trouble  was.  This  fell  into 
Buckner's  hands;  but  a  fireman  escaped,  and,  putting  a  hand-car 
on  the  track,  succeeded  in  getting  to  Louisville  with  the  news. 
General  Robert  Anderson,  of  Fort  Sumter  fame,  then  in  com- 
mand in  Kentucky  under  General  Fremont,  got  together  what 
forces  he  could  and,  he  himself  being  in  poor  health,  sent  them 
under  command  of  General  William  T.  Sherman  to  oppose 
Buckner.  Buckner  was  delayed  awhile  at  Bowling  Green,  an 
engine  having  been  thrown  from  the  track  where  a  rail  had  been 
taken  up  by  a  Union  man,  but  he  advanced  as  far  us  Elizabeth- 
town,  when,  hearing  of  the  approach  of  the  Union  troops,  he 
fell  back  to  Bowling  Green  and  established  a  fortified  camp 

there.  Sherman  made  a 
camp  near  Elizabeth- 
town,  and  early  in  the 
next  month  be  was  given 
command  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Cumberland, 
including  the  States  of 
Kentucky  and  Tennes- 
see, in  place  of  General 
Anderson,  who  was  re- 
tired on  account  of  ill 
health. 

After  this  Kentucky 
took  a  firm  stand  on  the 
side  of  the  Union,  and 
most  of  those  who  favored 
secession  left  the  State.  Among  them  was  John  C.  Breckin- 
ridge, ex- Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  and  Humphrey 
Marshall,  a  former  member  of  Congress,  both  of  whom  became 
brigadier-generals  of  the  Confederacy;  John  Morgan .  afterward 
famous  as  a  partisan  chief;  James  B.  Clay,  son  of  Henry  Clay; 
William  Preston,  former  American  minister  to  Spain;  and 
many  others. 

The  fall  of  Lexington,  Missouri,  caused  great  sorrow  to 
Unionists,  and  General  Fremont  was  publicly  accused  of  inca- 
pacity. People  said  that  he  was  responsible  for  the  disasters  at 
Wilson's  Creek  and  Lexington,  because  he  might  have  prevented 
them  by  sending  reinforcements  to  Lyon  and  to  Mulligan.     It 


John  C.  Fremont. 


1861.]  ZAG0NTF8  CHARGE.  119 

was  said  also  that  he  kept  bad  officers  in  command  at  St.  Lonis; 
that  he  lived  there  in  great  state,  and  with  so  much  ceremony 
that  it  was  impossible  for  people  to  see  him  even  on  business; 
that  he  was  extravagant  in  spending  the  juiblic  money,  and  that 
he  employed  persons  to  write  his  praises  in  the  newspapers. 
His  friends  denied  these  things,  but  whether  they  were  true  or 
false,  they  tended  to  weaken  the  confidence  of  both  citizens 
and  soldiers  in  him,  and  Fremont  saw  that  it  was  necessary  for 
him  to  do  something  speedily  to  win  back  his  reputation.  With 
a  force  of  twenty  thousand  men,  five  thousand  of  whom  were 
cavalry,  and  eighty-six  pieces  of  artillery,  he  went,  September 
27,  by  steamboat,  to  Jefferson  City,  which  he  thought  was 
threatened  by  Price.  But  Price,  satisfied  with  the  capture  of 
Lexington,  moved  again  toward  the  southwest,  and  crossing 
the  Osage  River  in  flat-boats  hastily  made  by  bis  own  men, 
marched  to  Neosho,  where  McCulloch  was  awaiting  him  with 
five  thousand  men.  Fremont,  with  his  army,  now  increased  to 
thirty  thousand  men,  in  five  divisions,  commanded  by  Generals 
Hunter,  Pope,  Sigel,  McKinstry,  and  Asboth,  followed  after 
him,  crossing  the  Osage  by  a  bridge  which  it  took  five  days  to 
build.  His  plan  was  to  defeat  Price  and  to  take  Little  Pock, 
the  capital  of  Arkansas,  and  thus,  by  cutting  off  supplies  from 
Polk,  Hardee,  and  Pillow,  compel  them  to  retreat  from  Colum- 
bus and  the  other  positions  they  held.  Then,  with  the  aid  of 
a  fleet  of  gunboats  building  at  St.  Louis,  he  hoped  to  take 
Memphis,  and  go  even  to  New  Orleans. 

When  about  fifty  miles  from  Springfield  General  Fremont 
sent  Major  Zagonyi,  a  Hungarian  who  had  fought  in  his  own 
land  under  General  Bern  in  the  war  for  independence,  for- 
ward to  reconnoitre  the  position  of  the  Confederates  there. 
Zagonyi,  who  was  the  commander  of  a  small  body  of  horsemen 
whom  Fremont  called  his  Body  Guard,  had  with  him  only 
about  three  hundred  cavalry,  part  of  them  the  Body  Guard  and 
the  rest  a  company  called  the  Prairie  Scouts.  Expecting  to  find 
only  a  few  hundred  men  in  Springfield,  Zagonyi  was  surprised 
to  see  a  force  of  twelve  hundred,  five  hundred  of  whom  were 
cavalry,  drawn  up  to  meet  him.  He  and  his  men  had  ridden 
all  night;  but  without  a  moment's  hesitation  he  charged  upon 
the  Confederates  sabre  in  hand,  through  a  heavy  musketry  fire, 
and  dispersed  the  whole  force,  chasing  them  through  the  town 


120 


LEXINO  TON.  —BELMONT. 


[1861. 


and  into  the  country  beyond.  Zagonyi  freed  about  seventy 
Union  prisoners,  and  taking  with  him  twenty-seven  Confederate 
prisoners,  retired  at  night  lest  the  enemy,  discovering  how  few 
men  he  had,  should  surround  him.  This  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  cavalry  charge  with  the  sabre  made  during  the  war. 
Zagonyi  lost  eighty-five  men  and  the  enemy  more  than  a  hun- 
dred in  killed  and  wounded  in  the  fight.  It  is  proper  to  add 
that  Confederate  writers  say  that  the  story  of  Zagonyi's  famous 
charge  is  greatly  exaggerated,  and  that  he  really  dispersed  only 
a  few  hundred  raw  militiamen,  who  were  poorly  armed  and 
without  discipline. 

Major  White,  of  the  Prairie  Scouts,  had  a  rather  singular 
adventure  at  this  time.     He  was  taken  ill  when  on  the  way  to 

Springfield,  and  being  unable 
to  ride  was  left  at  a  farm- 
house on  the  road  in  charge 
of  a  lieutenant  and  five  men. 
As  soon  as  he  felt  better  he 
went  on  to  Springfield  by  the 
main  road,  supposing  that 
Zagonyi  had  gone  in  that  di- 
rection; but  Zagonyi  had 
turned  from  the  bighway,  and 
when  Major  White  and  his 
little  band  came  near  the  town 
he  was  surrounded  and  cap- 
tured by  Confederate  cavalry. 
He  was  held  a  prisoner  when 
Zagonyi  charged  them,  and  was  borne  off  by  tbeni  when  they  fled. 
His  captors  halted  at  the  house  of  a  Union  man,  about  twelve 
miles  from  Springfield,  and  prepared  to  spend  the  night  there. 
Major  White  succeeded  in  letting  his  host  know  that  he  was  a 
prisoner,  and  as  soon  as  he  got  a  chance  the  man  sent  his  son 
to  tell  some  Union  men  who  lived  near.  They  surrounded  the 
house  in  the  night,  and  being  let  in  by  Major  White,  captured 
the  whole  band  of  Confederates,  and  the  next  day  the  Major 
marched  them  off  as  prisoners  and  succeeded  in  getting  back 
safe  to  the  army  with  them. 

Fremont  reached  Springfield  with  the  main  army  the  1st  of 
November,  and  on  the  next  day  he  was  relieved  of  his  command 


Sterling  Price. 


1861.] 


STERLING  PRICE. 


121 


by  an  order  from  Washington,  and  was  succeeded  by  General 
David  Hunter.  Fremont  returned  to  St.  Louis,  and  on  Novem- 
ber 9  General  Hunter  was  transferred  to  the  Department  of 
Kansas,  while  Major-General  Henry  Wager  Halleck  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  command  of  the  Department  of  Missouri.  About 
the  middle  of  November  the  army  left  Springfield  and  moved 
back  toward  St.  Louis,  and  southern  Missouri  was  again  open 
to  the  Confederates. 

Price  now  advanced  once  more,  but  hearing  that  Pillow  and 
Hardee  had  fallen  back  he  soon  withdrew  again  to  Springfield. 
His  campaign  had  been  quite  a  remarkable  one  in  many  respects. 
Price  himself  had  been  a  Union  man  in  the  beginning,  but  had 
finally  taken  up  arms  in 
defence  of  the  rights  of  his 
State  against  what  he  con- 
sidered the  usurpations  of 
the  Federal  Government. 
He  had  started,  says  a 
Southern  historian,  with 
scarcely  anything,  his  men 
being  without  uniforms, 
tents,  or  wagons,  and 
armed  chiefly  with  com- 
mon shotguns;  but  when 
he  retreated  to  Springfield 
where  he  purposed  making 
his  winter  Cjuarters,  he 
had  about  eight  thousand 
muskets  with  bayonets,  fifty  cannons,  and  many  tents  and 
wagons,  nearly  all  of  which  had  been  captured  from  the  enemy. 
His  troops,  barefooted  and  ragged,  had  subsisted  almost  entirely 
on  the  country,  living  sometimes  for  days  on  little  but  corn, 
which  they  plucked  in  the  fields  and  roasted  by  their  camp-fires. 
But  they  were  always  cheerful  and  ready  to  follow  their  leader, 
who  showed  himself  willing  to  share  their  privations  and  their 
dangers,  and  whose  brown  linen  duster  and  white  hairs  were 
often  to  be  seen  in  the  van. 

Another  noteworthy  character  in  Missouri  at  this  time  was 
Jeff  Thompson,  who  held  the  rank  of  a  brigadier-general  in  the 
Missouri  State  Guard  under  Price,  but  who  acted  mostly  as  a 


c'vJfc 


Jeff  Thompson. 


1S2 


LEXINGTON.— BELMONT. 


[1861. 


guerilla,  or  independent  leader.  His  enemies  called  him  a 
"bushwacker,"  but  bis  friends  and  admirers  named  him  the 
Swamp  Fox  and  the  Marion  of  tbe  Southern  Kevolution.  He 
was  a  brave  man  of  considerable  ability,  who  could  arouse  his 
followers  by  a  stirring  proclamation  or  a  sj>eecb,  and  even  on 
occasion  write  a  poem.*  With  a  force  of  about  two  thousand 
poorly  armed  men  he  overran  the  southeastern  part  of  the  State, 
one  day  capturing  a  Union  steamboat  on  the  river,  the  next 

tearing  up  railroads 
and  burning  bridges 
or  attacking  detach- 
ments of  Union 
troops  and  wagon 
trains  many  miles 
away  in  the  interior. 
He  had  met  with 
much  success  in  this 
kind  of  warfare,  but 
at  last  he  was  caught 
in  October  near 
Frederickton  by  a 
largely  superior 
Union  force  and  bad- 
ly defeated.  But  un- 
daunted by  this  mis- 
fortune, he  was  soon 
at  work  again  at  his 
old  business. 

Just  before  Gen- 
eral Fremont  had 
been  relieved  of  his  command  he  had  sent  orders  to  General 
Grant  at  Paducah  to  aid  him  by  moving  against  Columbus,  so 
that  General  Polk  could  not  send  troops  across  the  Mississippi 
to  help  Price,  and  at  the  same  time  to  drive  Jeff  Thompson  into 
Arkansas.  Columbus  had  been  so  strongly  fortified  that  it  was 
called  by  the  Confederates  the  Gibraltar  of  the  "West.  Batteries 
armed  with  very  heavy  artillery  had  been  planted  along  the 
bluff,  which  was   high  there,  so  as  to  close  the  river  against 


Battle  op  Belmont. 


See  Appendix,  page  564. 


[1861. 


BATTLE  OF  BELMONT. 


123 


the  Union  gunboats.  On  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Mississippi, 
in  Missouri,  on  ground  so  low  that  it  was  commanded  by  the 
guns  of  Columbus,  was  Belmont,  where  the  Confederates  had  a 
fortified  camp. 

Grant,  who  had  command  of  all  the  places  guarding  the 
rivers  around  Cairo,  sent  General  Charles  F.  Smith  with  some 
troops  from  Paducah  to  threaten  Columbus  in  the  rear,  while  he 
himself  went  with  nearly  three  thousand  men  from  Cairo  down 
the  river  on  five  steamboats  to  make  an  attack  on  Belmont. 
On  the  morning  of  November  7  Grant  landed  about  three  miles 
above  Belmont,  just  out  of  reach  of  the  guns  of  Columbus, 
and,  some  of  the  men  being  left  to  guard  the  boats,  marched  to 
the  rear  of  Belmont,  where  the  Confederates  were  found 
strongly  posted  in  the  woods. 
Meanwhile  two  gunboats  moved 
down  the  river  and  opened  a  fire 
on  some  Confederate  batteries 
just  above  Columbus.  General 
McClernand,  who  had  command 
of  the  attacking  force  under 
Grant,  soon  drove  the  enemy  out 
of  the  woods  and  into  their  camp, 
which  was  surrounded  by  an 
abattis,  a  French  word  for  a  kind 
of  breastwork  made  of  felled 
trees  with  the  branches  sharp- 
ened and  left  sticking  outward 
so  as  to  make  it  more  difficult  for  an  enemy  to  get  over  it.  But 
Grant's  men  soon  broke  over  the  abattis  and  pursued  the  Coil- 
federates  out  of  their  camp  into  the  woods  around.  The 
Unionists,  thinking  the  victory  won,  began  to  pillage  the  camp 
and  soon  became  thoroughly  disbanded.  Grant  tried  to  restore 
order  and  to  get  them  back  into  their  ranks,  and  to  force  them 
out  ordered  the  camp  to  be  fired.  The  batteries  across  the 
river  in  Columbus,  which  had  kept  quiet  while  the  struggle  was 
going  on,  for  fear  of  hurting  the  Confederate  soldiers,  now 
opened  a  heavy  fire  on  the  camp,  and  Grant,  seeing  that  he 
could  not  hold  the  place,  began  to  fall  back  toward  his  boats, 
taking  six  captured  guns. 

General  Polk,   meanwhile,   had  landed  several  regiments 


Benjamin  F.  Cheatham. 


124  LEXINGTON.— BELMONT.  [1861. 

above  Belmont,  under  General  Cheatham,  to  cut  Grant  off.  A 
desperate  fight  ensued,  and  though  the  Union  troops  finally 
pushed  their  way  to  their  boats,  it  was  with  the  loss  of  many  of 
their  best  men,  four  of  the  pieces  of  cannon  which  they  had 
taken,  most  of  the  things  brought  from  the  camp  at  Belmont, 
and  many  of  their  knapsacks,  canteens,  and  other  goods.  The 
men  rushed  on  board  of  the  boats  in  the  greatest  confusion,  and 
the  steamers  put  off  in  such  haste  that  Grant  himself  was  nearly 
left  behind.  He  rode  his  horse  on  to  the  last  boat  over  a  single 
plank  which  was  thrown  out  to  him,  and  the  boats  steamed  up 
the  river  riddled  by  showers  of  balls.  The  gunboats  now  came 
to  the  rescue,  and  firing  grape  into  the  Confederates  forced 
them  to  take  shelter  in  the  woods,  and  the  steamers  got  safe  to 
Cairo  that  night. 

This  was  one  of  the  hardest-fought  battles  of  the  war.  Gen- 
eral  McClernand  had  three  horses  killed  under  him,  but  escaped 
unhurt.  General  Grant  also  had  one  horse  shot  under  him. 
The  Union  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing  was  four  hun- 
dred and  eighty-five  men;  that  of  the  Confederates  six  hundred 
and  thirty-two.  Among  the  Confederate  slain  was  Colonel 
Johu  V.  Wright,  of  the  Thirteenth  Tennessee  regiment.  He 
was  one  of  the  Tennessee  members  of  Congress  who  resigned  on 
the  secession  of  his  State.  When  he  left  Washington  he  said  to 
Philip  B.  Fouke,  of  Illinois,  who  was  his  intimate  friend,  "  Phil, 
I  expect  the  next  time  we  meet  it  will  be  on  the  battle-field." 
The  next  meeting  was  at  Belmont,  where  Fouke  commanded 
the  Thirtieth  Illinois  and  Wright  fell. 

The  Confederate  General  Cheatham  had  a  narrow  escape 
from  capture  during  the  battle.  Eiding  along  the  road  accom- 
panied only  by  an  orderly,  he  saw  a  scjuadron  of  cavalry  coming 
toward  him.  He  rode  up  to  within  a  few  yards  of  them,  and 
asked : 

"  What  cavalry  is  that  ?" 

"  Illinois  cavalry,  sir,"  was  the  reply. 

"  Oh!  Illinois  cavalry.    All  right;  just  stand  where  you  are!" 

The  cavalry  obeyed  the  order,  supposing  him  to  be  one  of 
the  Union  generals,  and  General  Cheatham,  turning,  rode  back 
safely  directly  under  the  guns  of  an  infantry  regiment  just  come 
up,  the  men  of  which,  seeing  him  coming  from  the  cavalry,  also 
supposed  him  to  be  a  Union  officer, 


1861.]  GENERAL  HALLECE.  125 

While  these  things  were  going  on  General  Ilalleck  was  em- 
ployed in  reorganizing  his  army  and  getting  it  ready  for  another 
campaign  against  Price.  Several  of  Price's  supply-trains  and 
two  or  three  detachments  of  recruits  were  captured  in  Decem- 
ber, but  winter  soon  set  in  and  put  an  end  to  all  large  move- 
ments for  the  year. 


Whitworth  Cannon. 


CHAPTEE  X. 
WESTERN  VIRGINIA. 

General  Rosecrans  in  West  Virginia.— Robert  E.  Lee.— Battle  of  Carnifex  Ferry.— 
Escape  of  Floyd.— Reynolds  and  Lee.— Death  of  Colonel  Washington.— Travellers' 
Repose.— Milroy  and  Johnston.— Munson's  Hill,  Virginia.— The  Potomac  closed  by 
Confederate  Batteries.— Acquia  Creek.— Torpedoes.— Army  of  the  Potomac- 
Quaker  Guns.— Lewinsville  and  Darnestown.— Disaster  at  Ball's  Bluff.— Death  of 
Colonel  Baker.— False  Reports  of  Battles.— General  Stone  in  Fort  Lafayette.— 
Fault-finding.— Soldiers'  Jokes.— Hard-Tack.  —  Foraging.  —  Drawing  Potatoes.— 
Soldiers'  Slang.— General  Scott  resigns.— McClellan  General-in-Chief.— Dranes- 
ville.— Winter  Quarters. 

WHEN  General  McClellan  was  called  to  take  General 
McDowell's  place  at  the  head  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  Brigadier-General  William  S.  Rosecrans  was  left  in 
command  of  the  troops  in  West  Virginia.  General  Eobert  E. 
Lee,  the  Confederate  commander,  who  had  gathered  together 
the  forces  which  had  been  defeated  under  Garnett  and  Pegram, 
and  some  others,  found  himself  in  August  at  the  head  of  about 
sixteen  thousand  men.  Lee  made  his  headquarters  at  Hiin- 
tersville,  while  General  John  B.  Floyd,  the  former  Secretary  of 
War  at  Washington,  took  up  a  position  on  the  Gauley  River 
for  the  purpose  of  cutting  off  General  Cox  of  Ohio,  who  with  a 
brigade  of  Rosecrans's  army  had  just  driven  a  Confederate  force 
under  ex-Governor  Henry  A.  Wise  of  Virginia  out  of  the  Kan- 
awha Valley.  Floyd  surprised  and  routed  the  Seventh  Ohio 
under  Colonel  Tyler,  and  then  moved  to  a  place  on  the  Gauley 
River  called  Carnifex  Ferry,  hoping  to  cut  off  Cox  from  Rose- 
crans. But  early  in  September  Rosecrans,  leaving  part  of  his 
army  under  General  Joseph  J.  Reynolds  to  watch  Lee,  marched 
southward  with  about  ten  thousand  men  and  attacked  Floyd, 
who  had  strongly  fortified  himself  with  about  two  thousand 
men  on  the  banks  of  the  river.  After  a  severe  right  of  three  or 
four  hours,  in  which  the  Union  troops  lost  heavily,  Rosecrans, 
finding  the  position  much  stronger  than  he  expected,  gave 
orders  at  twilight  to  stop  the  assault  until  morning;  but  when 
morning  came  no  enemy  was  to  be  seen;  Floyd,  finding  his 
enemy  much  superior  in  numbers,  had  crossed  the  river  in  the 
night  over  a  bridge  hastily  built  of  logs,  and  retreated  to  the 


1861.] 


WEST  VIRGINIA. 


127 


mountains  thirty  miles  away.     Eosecrans  followed,  but  finally 
fell  back  again  to  the  Ganley. 

When  Rosecrans  marched  against  Floyd,  Reynolds  took  up 
a  strong  position  on  Cheat  Mountain.  This  part  of  West  Vir- 
ginia, as  can  be  seen  by  the  map,  is  very  mountainous.  On  the 
east  the  Alleghany  Mountains  separate  West  Virginia  from  Vir- 
ginia, while  west  of  and  parallel  with  them  is  another  range 
called  in  one  part  the  Greenbrier  Mountain  and  in  another 
Cheat  Mountain.  The  country  is  very  beautiful  and  pictur- 
esque, but  rugged  and  difficult  to  travel  in,  the  spurs  of  the 


Operations  in  Western  Virginia. 

mountains  being  often  cut  by  deep  and  gloomy  ravines.  The 
mountains  and  hills,  too,  are  densely  wooded  in  many  places. 
The  scouts  of  Reynolds  and  of  Lee  watched  each  other  for 
weeks  in  this  wild  region,  often  meeting  and  firing  at  each 
other  from  behind  trees  or  rocks,  and  having  hair-breadth 
escapes  and  adventures  enough  to  fill  a  book.  In  September 
Lee  moved  against  Reynolds,  hoping  to  crush  him  during 
Rosecrans's  absence,  and  then  to  push  on  to  the  Ohio  River; 
but  he  found  the  Union  troops  in  a  very  strong  position, 
and  being  repulsed  withdrew  and  joined  Floyd  and  Wise 
on  Big  Sewell  Mountain.      In  this  fight  with  Reynolds  was 


128  WE8TERN  VIRGINIA.  [1861. 

killed  Lieutenant-Colonel  John  A.  "Washington,  of  General 
Lee's  staff.  He  was  the  owner  of  Washington's  home,  Mount 
Vernon,  which  he  sold  to  the  Ladies'  Mount  Vernon  Associa- 
tion, the  present  owners.  Lee's  force  now  amounted  to  about 
twenty  thousand  men,  while  Eosecrans,  though  he  had  been 
joined  by  the  brigades  of  Cox,  Schenck,  and  Benham,  had  only 
twelve  thousand  men.  But  Lee  would  not  attack  Eosecrans, 
and  the  latter,  not  feeling  strong  enough  to  force  his  position 
on  the  mountain,  which  was  well  fortified,  fell  back  toward  the 
Gauley  Eiver.  Lee,  whose  campaign  had 
been  a  failure,  was  soon  after  recalled  and 
sent  to  South  Carolina;  Wise  had.  his 
command  taken  from  him,  and  Floyd 
was  left  alone  in  West  Virginia  to  watch 
the  Union  forces.  But  he  was  soon 
driven  away  by  Eosecrans,  and  fled  south- 
ward out  of  the  country. 

Lee  had  left  about    three  thousand 
Scout  Firing  from  behind  men   under   General   H.  E.  Jackson,  of 
'!L  Georgia,  to   watch   Eeynolds.     Eeynolds 

attacked  him  with  five  thousand  men  in  his  fortified  camp  near 
a  tavern  called  Traveller's  Eepose,  but  after  a  fight  of  seven 
hours  was  repulsed  and  fell  back  to  Elk  Water.  Soon  after 
this  Eeynolds  joined  Eosecrans,  and  General  Eobert  H.  Milroy 
was  left  with  a  small  force  to  guard  the  mountain  passes.  In 
December  Milroy  attacked  Colonel  Edward  Johnston,  of  Georgia, 
who  had  a  small  Confederate  force  in  the  Alleghany  Mountains, 
and  after  a  severe  fight  retired  with  a  loss  on  each  side  of  about 
two  hundred  men.  Milroy  soon  after  broke  up  a  Confederate 
post  at  Huntersville,  and  this  ended  the  campaign  in  West 
Virginia. 

We  must  now  return  to  the  East  once  more  and  see  what 
was  done  there  in  the  fall  of  1861.  Soon  after  the  battle  of 
Bull  Eun  the  Confederates  took  possession  of  the  hill  at  Centre- 
ville  and  fortified  it,  and  pushed  their  scouts  forward  within 
sight  of  the  defences  of  Washington.  Their  flag  on  one  of  their 
posts  on  Munson's  Hill  could  be  seen  plainly  from  the  Capitol. 
They  also  erected  batteries  along  the  Virginia  bank  of  the  Poto- 
mac, and  closed  the  river  to  navigation.  This  caused  much 
inconvenience,  because  most  of  the  provisions  and  other  things 


1861.] 


ACQUIA   CREEK. 


129 


for  the  army  around  Washington  had  been  sent  thither  by 
water,  and  the  railroads  were  not  able  to  keep  up  the  needed 
supply.  Washington  was  therefore  almost  in  a  state  of  block- 
ade, notwithstanding  the  great  army  gathered  there.  This  was 
looked  upon  as  a  disgrace  by  all  Union  men,  and  caused  much 
mortification  throughout  the  North.  Several  attempts  were 
made  to  silence  these  batteries,  especially  one  at  a  place  called 
Acquia  Creek,  where  the  little  stream  of  that  name  enters  the 


Acqcia  Creek  Landing,  in  18G1. 

Potomac.  About  the  1st  of  June  the  sloop-of-war  Pawnee, 
aided  by  several  gunboats,  bombarded  the  battery  there  for 
five  hours,  but  without  success.  The  Confederates  afterward 
tried  to  destroy  the  Pawnee  with  a  torpedo,  like  the  one  in  the 
picture.  It  was  picked  up  in  the  Potomac,  only  a  few  yards 
from  the  vessel,  which  it  would  probably  have  blown  up  if  it 
had  reached  it.  This  was  one  of  the  first  torpedoes  used  in  the 
war. 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac  now  numbered  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  men.  From  the  time  when  General  McClellan 
took  command,  a  few  days  after  the  disaster  at  Bull  Run,  he 
had  labored  to  organize  it  and  to  bring  it  into  a  fit  condition  to 
move  once  more  against  the  enemy.     Men  were  drilled  in  com- 


130  WESTERN  VIRGINIA.  [1861. 

parries  and  in  regiments,  and  regiments  were  formed  into  brig- 
ades and  brigades  into  divisions,  each  brigade  being  made  up  of 
four  regiments  and  each  division  of  three  brigades.  As  each 
regiment  had  about  eight  hundred  men,  a  division  was  com- 
posed of  about  ten  thousand  infantry-  and  to  this  was  added  a 
regiment  of  cavalry  and  four  batteries  of  artillery.  At  the  same 
time  the  men  were  employed  in  finishing  the  fortifications 
around  Washington,  and  by  October  the  city  was  encircled  by 
a  chain  of  earthworks  along  the  hills  on  both  sides  of  the  Poto- 
mac. 

The  Confederates  also  occupied  themselves  with  fortifying 
their  position  at  Manassas,  where  their  main  body  still  lay.  At 
Richmond,  too,  they  built  strong  fortifications  and  established 
large  manufactories  of  war  material  and  depots  of  arms  and 

supplies.     Men  were  drilled  and  sent 
to  the  army  at  Manassas  as  fast  as 
they  became  fit  for  service,  but  the 
force  there  did  not  increase  as  fast  as 
that  at  Washington.     It  was  thought 
at  Washington  at  the  time  that  the 
Confederate  force  was  nearly  if  not 
quite  equal  in  number  to  the  Union 
army,  but  it  is  now  known  that  Gen- 
eral Johnston,  who  had  succeeded  Beauregard  in  the  command, 
did  not  have  in  October  much  more  than  a  third  as  many  men 
as  McClellan  had. 

At  the  end  of  September  the  Confederates  withdrew  from 
Munson's  Hill  and  their  other  posts  near  Washington,  and  fell 
back  to  Centreville.  Their  earthwork  on  Munson's  Hill,  which 
looked  very  formidable  from  a  distance,  was  found  to  be  very 
weak,  while  its  armament  was  nothing  but  logs  cut  somewhat 
in  the  form  of  cannon,  each  with  a  round  black  spot  painted  on 

*  1  1,  Oil  casks,  used  for  buoys;  2  2,  Iron  cylinders,  filled  with  gun- 
powder; 3,  Rope,  with  pieces  of  cork  fastened  to  it;  4  4,  Boxes  with  fusees 
or  slow-matches;  5  5,  Gutta-percha  tube;  6  6,  Brass  tops  on  the  torpedoes; 
7  7,  Copper  tubes  running  through  the  casks;  8,  Wooden  board  in  casks, 
on  which  the  fusee  was  coiled.  The  fusees  were  first  lighted  and  the  tor- 
pedo was  then  set  afloat  with  the  tide,  with  the  expectation  that  the  slow- 
matches  would  fire  the  gunpowder  and  explode  the  torpedo  about  the 
time  it  struck  the  vessel. 


1861.] 


BALL'S  BLUFF. 


131 


the  end  to  look  like  a  muzzle.  These  Quaker  guns,  as  the  men 
named  them,  had  been  taken  all  this  time  for  100  pounder 
Parrott  guns  by  the  Union  soldiers,  who  had  kept  at  a  respectful 
distance  from  them. 

There  were  several  small  fights  in  October  for  the  possession 
of  the  Upper  Potomac,  one  of  which  took  place  at  Lewinsville 
in  Virginia  and  another  near  Darnestown  in  Maryland.  In 
these  affairs  and  in  another  near  Harper's  Ferry  the  Unionists 
were  successful.  They  were  soon  followed  by  a  more  impor- 
tant battle  at  Ball's  Bluff,  in  which  the  Confederates  were  vic- 
torious. The  left  wing  of 
their  army  lay  at  Leesburg, 
under  command  of  General 
Evans,  the  same  who  had 
fought  at  Bull  Run.  Gen- 
eral McClellan,  hearing  that 
they  had  left  Leesburg",  or- 
dered General  McCall  to 
move  forward  and  occupy 
Drainesville.  At  the  same 
time  General  Charles  P. 
Stone,  whose  brigade  was 
encamped  in  Maryland,  with 
headquarters  at  Poolesville, 
was  ordered  to  cross  the  river 
feint  toward  Leesburg. 


Quaker  Gun. 


and  aid  McCall  by  making  a 
It  was  expected  that  the  Confederates, 
if  they  had  not  already  left  Leesburg,  would  fall  back  from 
there  on  the  advance  of  these  two  bodies  of  troops. 

Stone,  thinking  that  McCall  was  near  enough  to  help  him  in 
case  he  Avere  attacked,  ordered  some  Massachusetts  troops  under 
Colonel  Devens  to  cross  at  Harrison's  Island,  early  in  the  morn- 
ing of  October  21,  to  reconnoitre.  Harrison's  Island  is  a  long 
island  in  the  Potomac,  opposite  Ball's  Bluff  on  the  Virginia 
side,  which  rises  there  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above 
the  water.  Devens  crossed  with  five  companies  in  a  flat-boat 
about  daybreak,  and  climbing  the  steep  bank  moved  to  within  a 
mile  of  Leesburg  without  finding  the  enemy.  But  the  Confed- 
erates had  been  watching  the  movement,  and  when  Devens  fell 
back  toward  Ball's  Bluff  about  noon,  he  was  attacked  by  Gen- 
eral Evans,  with  3200  Virginia  and  Mississippi  troops. 


132 


WESTERN  VIRGINIA. 


[1861. 


;y  Wood 


Colonel  E.  D.  Baker,  United  States  Senator  from  Oregon, 
who  had  joined  the  army  as  commander  of  the  California  Regi- 
ment, had  been  ordered  by  General  Stone  to  be  in  readiness 
with  a  brigade  to  aid  Colonel  Devens  if  necessaay.  At  the  first 
sound  of  the  guns  he  crossed  the  river  with  about  1900  men, 
and,  as  he  outranked  Colonel  Devens,  took  command  of  the 
whole  force.  Colonel  Baker  reached  the  battle-ground,  a  level 
field  of  about  six  acres  on  the  top  of  the  Bluff,  about  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.    The  enemy  were  mostly  hidden  by  the 

woods,  which  near- 
ly surrouuded  the 
field.  Baker  had 
scarcely  put  h  i  s 
lines  in  order  when 
the  Confederates 
attacked  him  in 
force.  His  men  held 
their  own  gallantly 
until  about  five 
o'clock,  when  Colo- 
nel Baker,  who  ex- 
posed himself  with 
reckless  bravery, 
was  "shot  through 
the  head,  and  soon 
after  the  Union 
troops,  pressed  by 
the  Confederates  on  all  sides,  gave  way  and  fell  back  in  disorder. 
A  terrible  scene  ensued.  All  was  confusion  and  dismay.  Be- 
fore the  fugitives  was  the  river,  its  waters  black  in  the  twilight; 
behind  were  the  bayonets  of  the  enemy.  Muskets,  knapsacks 
and  coats  were  thrown  away.  Some  ran  along  the  banks  wildly 
seeking  a  place  to  escape,  some  rolled  or  leaped  down  on  their 
friends  below,  and  others  clung  to  the  underbrush.  The  Con- 
federates fired  pitilessly  into  the  struggling  mass  from  the  top 
of  the  Bluff.  Hundreds  jumped  into  the  river,  where  many 
were  drowned  and  many  were  shot  while  swimming.  Colonel 
Devens  swam  the  river  on  a  horse  and  got  safe  to  the  island. 
A  flat-boat,  loaded  with  wounded,  was  overcrowded  and  sunk. 
At  last  darkness  put  an  end  to  the  horrors  and  enabled  a  few  to 


Battle  of  Ball's  Bluff. 


1861.] 


FALSE  REPORTS. 


133 


escape,  but  a  large  number  were  made  prisoners.  There  were 
more  than  a  thousand  among  the  killed,  wounded,  and  prison- 
ers, while  the  Confederate  loss  was  only  about  a  hundred  and 
fifty  killed  and  as  many  wounded.  The  Confederates  called 
this  fight  the  battle  of  Leesburg,  and  it  is  also  sometimes  called 
the  battle  of  Harrison's  Island  and  the  battle  of  Edward's 
Ferry,  from  a  ferry  near  the  upper  end  of  the  island. 

This  defeat  and  the  sad  death  of  Baker,  who  was  noted 
as  an  orator  and  a  statesman,  caused  universal  grief  throughout 
the  North,  while  among  the  Confederates  it  was  regarded 
as  a  new  proof  that  Northern  men  could  not  stand  before 
Southern  soldiers.  It  was  asserted  that  Evans  had  defeated  a 
force  three  times  as  large  as  his  own,  and  that  the  Unionists 


Fort  Lafayette. 

had  lost  more  men  than  the  Confederates  brought  into  the 
battle.  Bat  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  all  the  exaggeration 
and  false  reporting  was  on  their  side.  The  Union  authorities, 
fearful  that  the  truth  would  have  a  bad  effect  on  the  people, 
represented  the  enemy  as  more  numerous  than  they  really  were 
and  spoke  of  the  disaster  as  only  a  "  check."  An  attempt  was 
made,  too,  to  throw  all  the  blame  of  the  affair  on  General 
Stone,  and  he  was  sacrificed  to  quiet  the  public  clamor.  Some 
time  after  he  was  arrested  and  sent  to  Fort  Lafayette,  where 
he  lay  for  six  months.  Fort  Lafayette,  at  the  entrance  to  New 
York  Harbor,  is  an  old  building  on  a  little  island  opposite 
Fort  Hamilton  on  the  Long  Island  shore.  It  was  used  during 
the  war  as  a  place  to  confine  political  prisoners,  or  those  thought 
to  be  disloyal  to  the  government,  and  many  persons  were  sent 


134  WESTERN  VIRGINIA.  [1861. 

there  who  never  knew  why  they  were  arrested.  No  charge  was 
ever  made  against  General  Stone,  and  no  one  knows  to  this  day 
who  was  responsible  for  his  arrest.  Whatever  was  thought 
about  him  at  the  time,  it  is  now  generally  believed  that  he  was  a 
loyal  and  patriotic  officer,  and  that  he  was  not  to  blame  for  the 
defeat  at  Ball's  Bluff.  He  was  released  in  August,  1862,  and 
afterward  did  good  service  under  Banks  in  the  South.  After 
the  war  (1870)  he  became  a  general  in  the  army  of  the  Khedive 
of  Egypt. 

The  people,  who  had  expected  great  things  from  the  A^my 
of  the  Potomac,  began  now  to  find  fault  once  more  because 
McClellan  did  not  do  anything  to  wipe  out  the  disgrace  of  Ball's 
Bluff.  Washington  was  still  in  a  state  of  blockade  from  the 
Confederate  batteries  along  the  south  bank  of  the  Potomac,  and 
though  several  efforts  were  made  to  capture  or  destroy  them,  a 
new  one  would  spring  up  in  place  of  every  one  taken.  Though 
the  army  was  growing  in  strength  and  in  discipline  all  the  time, 
it  was  felt  that  the  Confederates  were  also  gaining,  and  that  the 
hope  of  an  early  closing  of  the  war  was  becoming  less  and  less 
every  day.  The  phrase  "  All  quiet  on  the  Potomac,"  which 
appeared  in  the  newspapers  from  day  to  day,  was  laughed  at 
and  soon  became  a  standing  joke,  and  even  President  Lincoln, 
sharing  in  the  general  feeling,  said  in  his  homely  way  that  if 
something  were  not  done  soon  the  bottom  would  drop  out  of 
the  whole  affair. 

During  this  long  rest  of  the  army  before  Washington  the 
soldiers  had  a  comparatively  easy  time,  and  many  of  them 
learned  to  enjoy  camp-life,  while  those  who  would  have  pre- 
ferred more  active  duty  tried  to  enliven  their  daily  existence 
with  various  sports  and  games.  They  were  provided  with  good 
clothing,  and  with  plenty  of  wholesome  food,  on  which  they 
appeared  to  thrive  notwithstanding  the  many  jokes  cracked 
about  "salt-horse,"  "boiled  rye,"  and  "cow-feed,"  as  they 
called  the  mess-beef,  coffee,  and  vegetables  served  among  their 
rations.  The  vegetables  were  dried  and  pressed  in  a  mass,  and 
were  used  for  making  sonp.  A  soldier  writing  home  about 
this  food,  which  was  new  to  him,  said:  "It  looks  a  good  deal 
like  a  big  plug  of  •  dog-leg'  tobacco  in  shape  and  solidity,  and 
is  composed  in  part  of  potatoes,  onions,  beans,  lettuce,  garlic, 
parsley,  parsnips,  carrots,  etc.     I  acknowledge  eating  two  China 


1861.]  HARD   TACK.  135 

tin  plates  full  without  any  convulsions  of  nature,  and  can  now 
speak  the  German  language  with  fluency." 

The  bread  served  as  rations  was  a  kind  of  cracker  called 
hard-tack  by  sailors  in  the  navy,  where  it  is  much  used.  Hard- 
tack is  very  tough  and  hard,  as  its  name  implies,  and,  though 
sweet  and  wholesome  if  properly  chewed,  is  apt  to  trouble  one 
not  blessed  with  good  teeth.  The  soldiers  used  to  call  these 
crackers  "McClellan  pies,"  and  numberless  jokes  and  not  a 
few  teeth  were  cracked  at  their  expense.  They  used  to  come 
packed  in  square  wooden  boxes,  with  the  maker's  name  and  the 
date  of  their  manufacture  usually  branded  on  one  end.  One 
day  a  lot  of  particularly  flinty  hard-tack  had  arrived,  and  a 
party  of  the  "boys,"  while  trying  to  masticate  some  of  it,  were 
wondering  at  the  meaning  of  the  brand  on  the  box.     Many  in- 


terpretations were  given  to  it,  but  all  seemed  unsatisfactory, 
until  one  who  had  been  exercising  his  jaws  on  a  more  than 
usually  stony  piece  exclaimed,  as  he  drew  a  long  breath: 

"  That  brand's  plain  enough — can't  be  misunderstood." 

"Why,  how  so?"  asked  several,  who  had  tried  their  wits  on 
it  in  vain. 

"Oh!  that's  the  date  when  the  crackers  were  baked;  six 
hundred  and  three  years  before  Christ."  * 

When  the  boys  got  tired  of  salt  meat  and  pressed  vegetables 
they  would  forage  on  the  neighboring  pig-pens,  chicken-coops, 
and  vegetable  gardens  for  supplies,  until  in  time  a  pig  or  a 
chicken  was  a  rare  thing  to  be  seen  within  ten  miles  of  a  camp. 
The  appearance  of  a  rabbit  was  the  signal  for  a  hue-and-cry, 
and  poor  bunny  was  soon  run  down  and  transferred  to  the  soup- 
kettle.  Many  complaints  were  made  against  the  soldiers  by  tho 
owners  of  farms  in  the  neighborhood  of  Washington,  but  it  was 
very  seldom  that  any  stolen  property  could  be  traced.  A  farmer 
living  not  a  great  way  from  Alexandria,  who  had  noticed  his 

*  Among  the  many  verses  on  hard-tack  which  went  the  rounds  of  the 
newspapers  during  the  war,  those  by  Prof.  Francis  J.  Child,  of  Harvard 
University,  are  worth  preserving.     See  Appendix,  page  564. 


136  WESTERN  VIRGINIA.  [1861. 

potatoes  disappear  in  a  mysterious  way  night  after  night,  went 
to  the  nearest  camp  to  see  if  he  could,  not  find  some  trace  of  the 
culprits.  While  strolling  around  among  the  tents,  he  saw  one 
of  the  hoys  serving  up  a  dish  of  fine  kidney  potatoes,  which  he 
thought  looked  very  much  like  his  own. 

"  Have  fine  potatoes  here,  I  see,"  he  said,  halting  hefore  the 
tent. 

"Splendid." 

"Where  do  you  get  them?" 

"  Draw  them." 

"Does  the  government  furnish  potatoes  for  rations?" 

"Nary  tater." 

"But  I  thought  you  said  you  drew  them." 

"Did.     We  just  do  that  thing." 

"But  how — if  they  are  not  included  in  your  rations?" 

"  Easiest  thing  in  the  world.  Won't  you  take  some  with  us?" 

"Thank  you.  But  you  will  oblige  me  if  you  will  tell  me 
how  you  draw  your  potatoes." 

"Nothing  easier.  Draw 'em  by  the  tops,  mostly;  some- 
times with  a  hoe,  if  there's  one  left  in  the  field." 

"Ha!  yes!  I  understand.  Well,  now,  see  here.  If  you 
won't  draw  any  more  of  my  potatoes,  I'll  bring  you  a  basketful 
every  morning,  and  draw  'em  myself." 

"Will  you?    Bully  for  you,  old  fellow!" 

And  three  cheers  and  a  tiger  were  given  for  the  farmer,  who 
had  the  pleasure  in  future  of  drawing  his  own  potatoes. 

Among  the  slang  used  by  the  soldiers,  "bully"  was  the 
highest  term  of  commendation,  and  "I  don't  see  it"  expressed 
an  equal  degree  of  dissent.  Before  long  the  men  had  almost 
a  language  of  their  own,  and  used  so  many  odd  words  and 
phrases  that  a  visitor  to  the  camp  was  at  a  loss  to  understand 
them.  Every  place  had  its  nickname,  and  few  officers  were 
spoken  of  behind  their  back  by  their  proper  names.  A  tent 
was  called  a  "canvas,"  a  sword  was  a  "toad-sticker,"  food  was 
"grub,"  stockings  were  " scabbards,  '  and  any  of  the  altered 
kinds  of  muskets  were  "howitzers."  The  word  "skedaddle," 
which  came  into  use  in  the  first  year  of  the  war,  caused  a  great 
deal  of  controversy  even  in  Europe,  where  learned  men  tried  to 
find  out  its  origin.  The  word  is  said  to  have  been  first  given  by 
some  German  soldiers  to  the  Confederate  earthworks  back  of 


1861.] 


SOLDIERS'  SLANG. 


137 


Munson's  Hill,  which  they  called  "  Fort  Skedaddle"  because  its 
defenders  ran  away,  and  it  soon  came  to  be  used  by  the  whole 
army  in  the  sense  of  the  slang  expressions  to  "cut  stick,"  to 
"vamose  the  ranche,"  and  to  "slope."  Some  thought  from 
this  that  it  was  of  German  origin.  Lord  Hill  wrote  to  the 
London  Times  to  prove  that  the  word  was  good  Scotch,  and 
said  it  was  in  common  use  in  Dumfries,  where  it  meant  to  spill — 
milkmaids  saying,  for  instance,  "You  are  skedaddling  your 
milk."  But  the  London  Spectator  said  this  was  wrong;  that  the 
word  was  good  Greek,  the  root  being  skedannumi,  meaning  to 
disperse  or  retire  tumultuously,  and  that  the  soldiers  used  it  in 
the  proper  sense. 

During  the  first  year  of  the  war  the  Union  soldiers  com- 
monly called  their  opponents  "Rebs"  and  "Secesh;"  in  1862, 

"  Confeds;"  in  1863,  "  Gray- 
backs"  and  "Butternuts," 
and  in  1864,  "Johnnies." 
The  nickname  "  Butter- 
nuts" was  given  the  Con- 
federates on  account  of  the 
color  of  their  homespun 
clothes,  dyed  reddish-brown 
with  a  dye  made  of  butter- 
nut bark.  The  last  name, 
"Johnnies,"  is  said  to  have 
originated  in  a  quarrel  be- 
tween two  pickets,  which 
began  by  the  Union  man's 
saying  that  the  Confederates  depended  on  England  to  get 
them  out  of  their  scrape.  This  the  other  denied,  saying  that 
they  were  able  to  scrape  themselves  out.  The  Union  man  then 
said  that  a  Reb  was  no  better  than  a  Johnny  Bull,  anyhow; 
whereupon  the  Confederate  said  that  he  would  shoot  him  if 
he  called  him  that  again,  for  he  would  as  lieve  be  called  a 
nigger  as  a  Johnny  Bull.  But  the  name  stuck,  and  in  the  last 
part  of  the  war  the  Confederate  soldiers  were  almost  universally 
called  "Johnnies."  Throughout  the  war  the  Confederates 
dubbed  all  the  Union  soldiers  "Yankees"  and  "Yanks,"  with- 
out any  reference  to  the  part  of  the  country  they  came  from. 
The  Western  men  often  took  as  much  offence  at  these  names  as 


Winfield  Scott. 


138  WESTERN  VIRGINIA.  [1861. 

the  Confederates  did  at  the  nickname  ''Johnny/-  *>r  "Johnny 
Keb,"  as  it  was  sometimes  varied.  Other  nicknames  for  Union 
soldiers,  occasionally  used,  were  "Feds,"  "Blue  Birds,"  and 
"Blue  Bellies."  Since  the  war  the  opponents  have  been  com- 
monly called  "Boys  in  Blue"  and  "Boys  in  Gray." 

At  the  close  of  October  Lieutenant-General  Scott,  ill  and 
infirm,  and  then  more  than  seventy-five  years  old,  asked  to  be 
placed  on  the  retired  list  of  officers.  His  request  was  granted, 
and  he  was  allowed  to  retire  with  his  full  rank,  and  without  any 
reduction  in  his  pay  or  allowances.  On  the  next  day  (Novem- 
ber 1)  Major-General  McClellan  was  appointed  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  army  of  the  United  States.     This  gave  him  charge 


Soldiers'  Huts. 

not  only  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  but  of  all  the  other 
armies  in  the  field,  and  of  military  operations  in  every  part  of 
the  United  States. 

A  fight  near  Dranesville,  December  20,  between  a  Confeder- 
ate force  of  about  twenty-five  hundred  men,  under  General  J. 
E.  B.  Stuart,  and  a  Union  brigade  of  about  four  thousand  men, 
under  General  E.  0.  C.  Ord,  ended  for  the  year  the  campaign 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Stuart  was  foraging — that  is, 
was  collecting  hay,  corn,  and  other  supplies  for  the  Confederate 
army.  To  give  his  wagon-train  time  to  get  out  of  the  way,  he 
attacked  the  Union  troops,  who  were  also  foraging,  but  after  a 
sharp  fight,  in  which  he  lost  about  two  hundred  men,  was 
obliged  to  retreat.  The  Union  loss  was  sixty-nine  in  killed  and 
wounded. 


1861.] 


WINTER  QUARTERS. 


139 


Cold  weather  had  now  set  in,  with  plenty  of  snow  and  ice. 
and  the  canvas  tents  along  the  Potomac  had  given  place  to 
structures  better  calculated  to  keep  out  wind  and  rain.  Not- 
withstanding the  daily  rumors  of  a  forward  movement,  the  sol- 
diers, taking  it  for  granted  that  there  would  be  none  before 
spring,  had  built  rude  cabins  out  of  unhewn  logs  cut  in  the 
woods  near  by.  Many  of  these  were  cpiite  picturesque,  but  most 
of  them  were  rude  huts  like  those  shown  in  the  picture.  The 
Confederates  had  done  the  same,  and  the  hostile  armies  settled 
down  for  the  winter,  each  in  its  city  of  huts,  scarcely  more  than 
a  day's  march  from  each  other. 


Mortar 


CHAPTER  XL 
THE  ATLANTIC  COAST. 

Secretary  Welles  and  the  Navy.— Confederate  Privateers.— The  Lady  Davis.— The 
Savannah's  Crew  treated  as  Pirates.— The  Petrel  Sunk.— The  Sumter.— Raphael 
Semmes.— The  Laws  about  Prizes.— The  Nashville.— Blockade-running.— Expedition 
against  Hatteras.— The  Forts  Captured.— A  Union  Expedition  Spoiled.— Fort 
Pickens.— Wilson's  Zouaves.— The  Boys  have  got  the  Money.— Night  Attack  on 
the  Zouaves'  Camp.— Bombardment  of  Forts  McRee  and  Barrancas.— The  Manassas 
Ram.— Fight  with  the  Union  Fleet  in  the  Mississippi.— Fire- Ships. 

WHILE  an  army  was  thus  forming,  Secretary  Welles,  of  the 
Navy  Department,  bad  struggled  hard  to  create  a  navy. 
When  the  war  began  scarcely  vessels  enough  could  be  found  to  do 
blockade  duty.  Many  were  in  distant  seas,  and  some  had  been 
captured  or  destroyed  by  the  Confederates  when  they  took  the 
navy-yards  in  their  States.  What  was  still  worse,  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty-nine  naval  officers,  born  in  the  South,  had  "gone 
with  their  States."  Fortunately,  merchant  vessels  fit  for  use 
while  war-ships  were  building  were  obtained,  and  enough  offi- 
cers from  the  merchant  service  were  found  to  take  the  place 
of  those  who  had  left.  At  the  beginning  of  July,  1861,  there 
were  forty-three  armed  vessels  in  the  service,  doing  duty  as 
blockaders  and  in  defending  the  coasts.  These  were  divided 
into  two  squadrons  or  fleets,  one,  called  the  Atlantic  Squadron, 
consisting  of  twenty-two  vessels,  under  command  of  Commodore 
Silas  H.  Stringham,  and  the  other,  called  the  Gulf  Squadron, 
of  twenty-one  vessels,  under  Commodore  William  Mervine.  The 
Naval  Academy  meanwhile  had  been  removed  from  Annapolis, 
where  it  was  no  longer  considered  safe,  to  Newport,  Rhode 
Island. 

As  early  as  April,  1861,  Jefferson  Davis  had  begun  to  send 
out  privateers  to  prey  on  the  commerce  of  the  United  States. 
The  first  of  these  vessels  to  sail  under  the  Confederate  flag  was 
the  Lady  Davis,  named  after  the  wife  of  President  Davis.  She 
was  a  small  steamer  used  at  first  for  the  defence  of  Charleston 
Harbor,  and  mounted  only  two  guns.  Two  other  steamers,  the 
Savannah  and  the  Petrel,  were  soon  sent  out,  and  by  the  time  the 
blockade  began  to  be  strictly  enforced  quite  a  fleet  of  vessels 


1861.] 


CONFEDERATE  PRIVATEERS. 


141 


were  afloat,  and  our  commerce  was  seriously  threatened.  Some 
rich  prizes  were  made  at  first  by  these  vessels,  for  many  United 
States  ships  returning  from  foreign  countries  had  not  at  that 
time  heard  of  the  war;  but  the  Confederate  privateers  soon  found 
that  the  business  was  a  dangerous  one.  The  Savannah,  a  little 
schooner  which  had  been  a  pilot-boat,  armed  with  only  one  gun, 
slipped  out  of  Charleston  Harbor,  Sunday,  June  2,  and  lay  in 
wait  for  vessels  sailing  up  and  down  the  coast.  On  the  next 
day  she  was  fortunate  enough  to  catch  a  brig  laden  with  sugar 
from  Cuba,  bound  to  Philadelphia.  Putting  part  of  her  crew 
on  the  prize,  the  Savannah  began  to  look  for  more  prey.  To- 
ward evening  another  brig  hove  in  sight,  and  the  privateer, 
hoping    for    a   second    rich  JSUKSfc 

prize,  pursued  her;  but  what 
was  her  crew's  surprise  and 
dismay  to  find  that  they  had 
caught  a  Tartar.  The  ves- 
sel proved  to  be  the  United 
States  brig-of-war  Perry. 
When  the  Confederates! ound 
out  their  mistake,  they  tried 
in  vain  to  escape,  and  were 
obliged  to  strike  their  colors. 
Her  crew  were  taken  to  New 
York,  imprisoned,  and  in  Oc- 
tober following  were  tried  as 
pirates.  In  the  mean  time 
Mr.  Davis  hud  written  a  letter  to  President  Lincoln,  threaten- 
ing that  if  the  privateersmen  were  hung  as  pirates  he  would 
treat  in  the  same  way  an  equal  number  of  prisoners  of  war. 
Soon  after  he  prepared  to  carry  out  this  threat  by  selecting 
Colonel  Michael  Corcoran,  of  the  Sixty-ninth  New  York  regi- 
ment, who  had  been  taken  at  Bull  Run,  and  some  others  as  host- 
ages,-and  putting  them  in  irons  to  await  the  result  of  the  trial. 
This  put  the  matter  in  a  new  light.  The  United  States 
Government  had  refused,  from  the  beginning,  to  recognize  the 
Confederate  States  as  a  belligerent — that  is,  as  a  government 
capable  of  carrying  on  war.  It  regarded  every  Confederate  sol- 
dier who  killed  a  Union  soldier  as  nothing  but  a  murderer,  and 
every  Confederate  vessel  as  a  pirate.     But  it  was  soon  found 


Gideon  Welles. 


142  THE  ATLANTIC  COAST.  [1861. 

out  that  this  would  not  do.  The  battle  of  Bull  Eun  had  given 
the  Confederates  the  advantage  of  a  large  number  of  prisoners, 
both  officers  and  men.  It  would  be  not  only  inhuman  but  very 
inconvenient  to  refuse  to  exchange  for  these  prisoners  Confed- 
erates taken  in  battle;  and  as  the  Government  could  not  con- 
sistently make  any  difference  between  prisoners  taken  on  land 
and  those  taken  at  sea,  it  was  soon  obliged  to  treat  the  pri- 
vateersmen  the  same  as  other  prisoners.  The  trial  was  there- 
fore stopped,  and  the  prisoners  were  soon  after  exchanged.  The 
Confederates  were  also  acknowledged  as  belligerents  by  Eng- 
land, France,  Spain,  and  Portugal  in  1861. 

The  Petrel,  another  privateer  which  sailed  from  Charleston 
(July  28),  was  not  so  lucky  even  as  the  Savannah.  She  was  the 
United  States  revenue-cutter  Aiken,  which  had  been  given  up 


The  Privateer  Lady  Davis. 

by  her  commander  to  the  disunionists  at  Charleston  the  pre- 
ceding December.  She  had  scarcely  got  out  of  the  port  when 
she  came  in  sight  of  the  Union  frigate  St.  Lawrence,  then  on 
blockade  duty.  The  frigate  was  at  once  made  to  look  as  much 
like  a  merchant  vessel  as  possible:  her  ports  were  closed,  her 
rigging  and  spars  reduced,  and  most  of  her  men  sent  below. 
The  Petrel,  thinking  she  had  a  rich  prize,  gave  chase,  and  tired 
a  gun  for  her  to  heave  to.  The  St.  Lawrence  appeared  to  be 
crowding  all  sail  as  if  to  escape,  but  she  let  her  pursuer  come 
up  with  her  little  by  little,  until  at  last,  when  she  was  within 
good  range,  she  threw  open  some  of  her  ports  and  fired  three 
heavy  guns  at  her.  The  Petrel,  crushed  like  an  egg-shell,  sank 
at  once,  leaving  her  astonished  crew  struggling  in  the  sea.  Four 
of  her  men  were  drowned,  and  the  others,  when  picked  up  by 


1861.] 


THE  SUMTER. 


143 


the  boats  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  were  so  dazed  that  they  scarcely 
knew  what  had  happened. 

A  little  before  the  Petrel  sailed  from  Charleston,  a  larger  ves- 
sel, and  one  destined  to  become  more  famous,  had  sailed  from 
New  Orleans.  This  vessel  had  been  a  New  Orleans  and  Havana 
p  icket  steamer,  named  the  Marques  de  la  Habana.  The  Con- 
federate government  armed  her  with  heavy  guns,  changed  her 
name  to  the  Sumter,  and  put  her  under  the  command  of 
Raphael  Semmes,  a  former  officer  of  the  United  States  navy, 
and  better  known  afterward  as  commander  of  the  Alabama. 
The  Sumter  easily  escaped  from  the  blockading  squadron  at 


The  Privateer  Savannah. 

the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi,  and  soon  made  many  captures  in 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  among  the  West  India  Islands. 

According  to  the  laws  of  nations,  prizes  taken  at  sea  have 
to  be  sent  into  some  port  of  the  country  to  which  the  vessel 
making  the  capture  belongs,  so  that  the  lawfulness  of  the  cap- 
ture may  be  decided  by  a  prize  court.  It  may  often  happen  that 
property  owned  by  neutrals — that  is,  parties  who  do  not  belong 
to  either  side  in  a  war — may  be  on  board  of  a  vessel  belonging  to 
an  enemy,  and  this  may  give  rise  to  questions  which  can  only 
be  settled  by  a  court.  To  capture  vessels  on  the  high  seas  with- 
out presenting  the  case  before  a  proper  court  is  piracy  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  nations.     Semmes  sent  the  first  prizes  taken 


144 


TEE  ATLANTIC  COAST 


[1861. 


by  him  to  New  Orleans  in  charge  of  some  of  his  crew,  but  as 
they  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  United  States  Government,  he 
determined  to  settle  afterward  for  himself  all  questions  relating 
to  prizes.  So  he  set  up  a  court  on  board  his  own  vessel,  and 
decided  each  case  to  suit  himself;  and  as  his  chief  object  was 
to  damage  the  enemy,  he  burned  nearly  every  Union  vessel- that 
fell  into  his  hands,  and  landed  the  crews  at  the  nearest  port. 
Instead  of  being  treated  as  a  pirate,  he  was  allowed  to  take  sup- 
plies of  coal  and  provisions  in  the  ports  of  the  British  colonies, 
and  was  given  all  possible  aid  in  his  career  of  destruction,  the 
English  being  only  too  glad  to  see  the  commerce  of  a  rival  swept 
from  the  ocean.  After  destroying  a  large  number  of  vessels, 
Semmes  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  went  into  the  port  of  Gibral- 


The  Privateer  Sumter. 

tar.  The  Sumter  was  found  there  early  in  1862  by  the  United 
States  steamer  Tuscarora,  and  Semmes,  not  daring  to  come  out, 
sold  his  vessel  and  went  to  England,  where  he  had  the  Alabama 
built. 

The  Nashville,  another  Confederate  steamer,  was  less  suc- 
cessful. She  captured  only  two  vessels,  and  was  finally 
destroyed  (Feb.  28,  1862),  in  the  Ogechee  River,  Florida,  by 
the  Montauk,  as  will  be  related  hereafter.  The  Jefferson  Davis, 
a  brig,  was  lost  on  the  coast  of  Florida,  and  the  Beauregard,  a 
schooner,  was  captured. 

Notwithstanding  the  great  difficulty  in  blockading  so  long  a 
seacoast,  it  was  so  effectually  done  by  the  close  of  the  year  that 
the  Confederates  began  to  feel  the  pressure.  Having  no  com- 
merce of  their  own  and  having  to  depend  wholly  on  blockade' 


1861.]  BLOCKADE  RUNNERS.  145 

runners  for  supplies,  most  of  those  tilings  which  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  get  either  from  the  North  or  from  foreign  coun- 
tries rose  greatly  in  cost,  while  some  could  not  be  had  at  any 
price.  If  the  blockade  could  have  been  kept  up  strictly  the 
Confederates  could  scarcely  have  kept  up  the  war,  for  they  had 
to  depend  almost  entirely  on  foreign  countries  for  arms  and 
supplies.  These  were  carried  into  the  ports  of  the  Confederacy 
chiefly  by  British  steamers  built  for  the  purpose.  These  block- 
ade-runners, as  they  were  commonly  called,  were  long  sharp 
side-wheel  steamers,  built  for  strength  and  speed.  They  were 
usually  painted  gray,  so  that  they  could  scarcely  be  seen  in  the 
dusk  or  in  the  lightest  fog.  Laden  with  arms,  ammunition, 
and  army  supplies  of  all  kinds,  these  vessels  would  approach 


Blockade-Runner. 

the  coast  in  the  night,  and,  hiding  all  their  lights,  watch  their 
chance  to  run  in,  some  of  them  passing  unseen  between  the 
vessels  of  the  blockading  squadron  until  too  late  to  stop  them. 
Exchanging  their  precious  cargoes  for  cotton,  they  would  wait 
until  some  dark  or  foggy  night  offered  them  an  opportunity  of 
running  through  the  fleet  again.  Once  on  the  ocean  they  were 
fleet  enough  to  show  their  heels  to  the  fastest  of  our  heavy 
war-vessels. 

In  the  summer  of  1861  General  Butler  was  superseded  in 
command  at  Fortress  Monroe  by  General  John  E.  Wool,  and 
was  put  in  command  of  a  naval  and  land  expedition  for  the 
capture  of  the  forts  at  the  mouth  of  Hatteras  Inlet. 

Hatteras  Inlet  is  an  opening  through  the  long  sandy  tongue 
of  land  which  separates  Pamlico  Sound,  on  the  coast  of  North 


146 


THE  ATLANTIC  COAST. 


[1861. 


Carolina,  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  is  a  little  way  below 
Cape  Hatteras.  Through  it  British  blockade-runners  were  all 
the  time  carrying  in  supplies  for  the  Confederates,  who  had 
built  two  forts,  named  Hatteras  and  Clark,  on  the  north  side  to 
guard  the  entrance.  The  fleet  carrying  the  expedition,  under 
command  of  Commodore  Stringham,  was  composed  of  the  Min- 
nesota, Pawnee,  Monticello,  Wabash,  Susquehanna,  Cumber- 
laud,  and  Harriet  Lane.  It  sailed  from  Hampton  Eoads, 
August  26,  and  two  days  afterward  fire  was  opened  on  the  forts, 
which,  though  not  yet  finished,  were  garrisoned  by  about  seven 
hundred  men,  under  command  of  Commodore  S.  Barron,  a 
former  officer  of  the  United  States  navy. 
The  bombardment  continued  all  day. 
The  Confederates  left  Fort  Clark,  and 
some  troops  landed  from  the  ships  and 
took  possession  of  it.  The  enemy,  who 
had  gone  into  Fort  Hatteras,  could  do 


Operations  at  Hatteras  Inlet. 

little  harm  to  the  ships  because  their  guns  were  too  small; 
and  being  cut  off  from  a  retreat  by  the  Union  men  in  Fort 
Clark,  they  raised  a  white  flag,  on  the  morning  of  August 
29,  in  token  of  surrender.  Among  the  captures  were  more  than 
seven  hundred  prisoners,  twenty-five  cannon,  and  a  large  quan- 
tity of  small-arms  and  stores.  For  several  clays  afterward  the 
blockade-runners,  not  knowing  of  the  loss  of  the  forts,  continued 
to  run  into  the  inlet,  and  of  course  fell  a  prey  to  the  Union 
fleet.  Thus  one  of  the  most  important  channels  by  which  the 
Confederates  received  supplies  was  closed.  It  was  therefore  a 
severe  blow  to  them,  but  it  soon  led  to  still  more  important 
events. 

The  Government  had  intended  to  close  up  Hatteras  Inlet  by 


1861.] 


HATTER  AS. 


147 


sinking  some  old  vessels  in  it,  but  after  the  capture  of  the  forts 
it  was  determined  to  hold  them  as  a  means  of  getting  command 
of  Pamlico  and  Albemarle  sounds,  which  form  an  inland  sea 
navigable  for  vessels.  There  were  several  other  inlets  into  this 
sea  through  which  blockade-runners  could  pass.  At  one  of 
these,  called  Ocracoke  Inlet,  south  of  Hatteras,  the  Unionists 
found  a  fort  begun,  but  undefended;  so  all  they  had  to  do  was 
to  destroy  it  and  throw  its  guns  into  the  sea.  About  the  first 
of  October  the  Twentieth  Indiana  Regiment  was  sent  to  Chico- 
micomico,  north  of  Hatteras,  with  the  object  of  taking  posses- 
sion of  another  inlet  opening  into  Pamlico  Sound  near  there. 
The  Confederates  had  a  strong  post  on  Eoanoke  Island, 
which  lies  in  the  inland  sea,  separating  it  into  Pamlico  and 


m 

Fort  Hatteras. 


Albemarle  sounds.  As  soon  as  they  heard  of  the  troops  at 
Chicomicomico,  they  sent  a  force  of  about  two  thousand  men 
against  them  from  the  island.  A  Union  vessel,  containing 
camp  equipage,  provisions,  and  intrenching  tools,  was  captured 
by  them,  and  the  Indianians,  seeing  no  hope  of  holding  the 
place,  retreated  toward  Cape  Hatteras,  with  the  loss  of  about 
fifty  men  prisoners.  They  would  probably  all  have  been  cap- 
tured if  they  had  not  been  protected  by  two  of  the  Union  ships 
which  shelled  the  enemy  and  drove  them  away.  The  Confed- 
erates retired  with  their  captures,  and  the  Unionists  returned  to 
Fort  Hatteras. 

Fort  Pickens,  on  Santa  Rosa  Island,  off  the  coast  of  Florida, 
which  had  been  saved  for  the  Union  at  the  opening  of  the  war 
by  the  bravery  of  Lieutenant  Slemmer,  still  remained  in  the 


148 


THE  ATLANTIC  COAST. 


[1861. 


possession  of  the  United  States.  The  fort  had  been  reinforced 
about  the  same  time  that  the  attempt  was  made  to  provision 
Sumter,  and  to  make  it  still  more  secure  a  regiment  from  New 
York,  called  Wilson's  Zouaves,  was  encamped  near  by  on  Santa 
Kosa  Island.  A  small  squadron  of  ships  was  also  stationed  off 
the  entrance  of  the  port,  which  is  one  of  the  best  in  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  The  Confederates  felt  the  loss  of  this  fort  very  seri- 
ously, for,  although  they  held  Pensacola  and  the  other  forts,  it 
completely  blockaded  the  harbor.  The  garrison  of  Pickens,  too, 
had  made  several  raids  on  the  mainland,  in  one  of  which  they 


Ik  '■ ' 


Fort  Pickens.    Fort  McRee  in  distance  on  the  right. 


burned  the  dry-dock  in  the  navy-yard,  and  in  another  a  schooner 
fitting  out  as  a  privateer. 

Wilson's  Zouaves  had  a  bad  reputation.  It  is  said  that 
the  regiment  was  largely  made  up  of  New  York  "roughs," 
and  many  stories  were  told  in  the  newspapers  of  the  time 
at  their  expense.  A  clergyman  in  New  York,  who  had  been 
collecting  subscriptions  to  aid  in  fitting  out  the  regiment, 
went  one  day  to  the  City  Hall  Park,  where  the  Zouaves 
were  encamped,  to  carry  some  money  to  Colonel  Wilson.  He 
lingered  a  while  among  the  tents,  talking  with  the  men  and 


1861.]  WILSON'S  Z0UAV3S.  149 

giving  them  good  advice,  and  at  last  reached  headquarters  and 
informed  the  Colonel  of  the  object  of  his  visit;  but  on  looking 
for  his  pocketbook  he  found  to  his  dismay  that  it  was  gone. 

''Did  you  come  through  the  camp?"  anxiously  inquired 
Colonel  Wilson. 

"  Yes/'  replied  the  clergyman,  "directly  through  the  main 
avenue." 

"  It's  all  right  then,"  said  the  Colonel,  with  a  bland  smile, 
"the  boys  have  got  the  money." 

The  reputation  of  the  regiment  had  preceded  it,  and  when 
it  was  sent  to  Santa  Eosa  Island,  the  Confederates  around  Pen- 
sacola  thought  it  had  been  selected  expressly  to  plunder  them. 
They  therefore  determined  to  capture  them,  if  possible.  One 
dark  night  they  landed  about  twelve  hundred  men  at  Deer 
Point,  four  miles  east  of  Colonel  Wilson's  camp.  The  Zouaves, 
unsuspecting  any  danger,  were  surprised  about  two  o'clock  in 
the  morning  (Oct.  0)  by  the  enemy,  who  rushed  upon  them  with 
cries  of  "Death  to  Wilson!  no  quarter!"  The  Zouaves  ran 
from  their  tents,  which  were  quickly  pillaged  and  set  on  fire  by 
the  Confederates,  and  fell  back  toward  the  fort  in  little  groups. 
The  night  was  very  dark,  and  friend  and  foe  could  scarcely  tell 
each  other  in  the  fitful  light  made  by  the  blazing  tents.  The 
Confederates,  as  much  disorganized  as  the  Zouaves,  followed 
them,  firing  their  guns  whenever  they  could  see  them.  Colonel 
Brown,  who  commanded  then  in  Pickens,  sent  Major  Vogdes 
with  two  companies  of  regulars  to  the  aid  of  the  Zouaves. 
The  Major  missed  his  way  and  was  captured  by  the  enemy, 
but  his  men  advancing  rapidly  and  in  order  on  the  Confed- 
erates, put  them  to  flight,  and  they  retreated  in  disorder  to 
their  boats.  Vollies  of  musketry  were  fired  at  them  as  they 
made  off  in  haste,  so  that  their  loss  was  nearly  double  that  of 
the  Unionists.  Most  of  the  Union  loss  was  among  the  regu- 
lars, the  Zouaves  having  done  but  little  fighting  until  the  enemy 
was  in  retreat. 

During  the  next  month  the  commander  of  Fort  Pickens, 
aided  by  the  men-of-war  Niagara,  Richmond,  and  Montgomery, 
bombarded  Forts  McRee  and  Barrancas  and  destroyed  with 
shells  the  village  of  Warrenton  and  part  of  the  navy-yard.  The 
Confederate  forts  replied,  but  little  damage  was  done  on  either 
side,  and  after  two  days  the  bombardment  ceased. 


150  TEE  ATLANTIC  COAST.  [1861. 

Soon  after  the  burning  of  the  camp  of  "Wilson's  Zouaves,  the 
Confederates  made  a  notable  attempt  to  break  the  blockade  of 
New  Orleans  by  making  an  attack  on  the  Union  fleet  guarding 
the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi.  To  effect  this  they  had  pre- 
pared an  iron-clad  vessel  by  cutting  away  the  upper  works  of  a 
river  steamboat  and  covering  it  with  an  iron-plated  roof,  built 
so  slanting  that  cannon-balls  would  glance  off  from  it.  Her 
bow  was  so  made  that  a  heavy  gun  could  be  fired  directly 
in  front,  and  under  the  water-line  she  had  a  sharp  iron  spike 
for  ramming  in  the  sides  of  ships,  just  as  ancient  war-galleys 
did.  From  this  the  vessel  was  called  a  ram,  and  she  was 
named  the  Manassas,  after  the  battle  commonly  called  Bull  Eun. 
Great  things  were  expected  of  this  queer-shaped  vessel,  and 
if  she  had  been  managed  properly  she  might  have  done  much 
damage. 

On  the  night  of  October  12,  a  very  dark  night,  the  Manassas, 
under  command  of  Commodore  J.  S.  Hollins,  an  old  officer  of 
the  United  States  navy,  steamed  down  the  river,  followed  by 
seven  small  armed  steamers  towing  some  fire-ships.  The  ram, 
having  no  masts  and  showing  only  a  rounded  back  as  she  glided 
along,  looked  more  like  a  great  turtle  than  a  war-ship.  She 
arrived  among  the  Union  ships,  which  were  lying  in  one  of  the 
mouths  of  the  Mississippi,  called  the  Southwest  Pass,  before 
their  crews  knew  of  her  coming.  Passing  the  sloop-of-war 
Preble,  she  struck  the  war-steamer  Richmond  with  her  ram, 
staving  a  small  hole  in  her  side  about  two  feet  below  the  water- 
line.  The  Richmond  and  the  Preble  each  fired  into  the  mon- 
ster, but  their  shots  glanced  off  from  her  sides  like  hail  from  a 
roof.  The  fire-ships  were  now  lighted  and  began  to  drift  down, 
lighting  up  the  river  with  their  blaze,  and  Captain  Pope,  the 
commander  of  the  fleet,  fearful  that  some  of  his  vessels  might 
be  set  on  fire  by  them,  ordered  the  Preble  and  the  Vincennes  to 
go  down  the  river,  while  he  covered  the  retreat  with  the  Rich- 
mond. The  Preble  passed  the  bar  safely,  but  the  Vincennes 
and  the  Richmond  grounded.  Captain  Handy  of  the  Vincennes, 
mistaking  a  signal,  set  a  slow-match  to  the  magazine  of  the 
Vincennes,  intending  to  blow  her  up,  and  went  with  his  men 
on  board  of  the  other  ships;  but  fortunately  the  match  went 
out,  and  he  returned  and  again  took  possession  of  her.  About 
ten  o'clock  the  enemy  retired  and  went  up  the  river,  and  the 


1861.] 


TIIE  MANASSAS. 


151 


next  morning  the  ships  were  got  safely  over  the  bar,  though 
some  of  the  guns  of  the  Vincennes  had  to  be  thrown  overboard 
to  lighten  her.  It  was  afterward  found  out  that  the  machinery 
of  the  ram  had  been  damaged  by  the  stroke  she  gave  the 
Kichmond,  so  that  she  was  unable  to  ram  any  of  the  other 
vessels. 


Vice-Admiral 


Rear-Admiral. 


Commodore. 


Lieutenant-Commander. 
{gold  leaves). 


Shoulder-Straps  of  the  United  States  Navy. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
DEEDS  OF  THE  NAVY. 

The  Port  Royal  Expedition.— Hilton  Head.— The  Mosquito  Fleet.— Port  Royal.— Beau- 
fort.—French  Colony  of  1562.— Capture  of  the  Forts.— Cotton-burning.— Massa 
Bobolition.— Big  Tybee  Island.— Martello  Tower.— Sinking  of  the  Stone  Fleet 
at  Charleston.— Mason  and  Slidell.— The  Trent  and  the  San  Jacinto.— Lieutenant 
Fairfax  and  Miss  Slidell.— Honors  to  Captain  Wilkes.— The  British  Lion  Growls 
and  Gets  Ready  for  War.— I'm  Off  to  Charleston.— Mr.  Lincoln's  Story  of  the 
Two  Dogs.— Mr.  Seward's  Joke.— Mason  and  Slidell  Delivered  up. 

AT  the  close  of  October,  1861,  Hampton  Roads  presented 
a  gay  and  exciting  scene.  Eighteen  war-ships  and  thirty- 
three  transports  lay  off  Fortress  Monroe,  the  latter  with  fifteen 
thousand  soldiers  on  board,  ready  to  sail  on  an  expedition  down 
the  Southern  coast.  Besides  these  there  were  twenty-five  ves- 
sels laden  with  coal,  to  form  a  depot  for  supplying  fuel  for  the. 
steamers  as  soon  as  a  landing  should  be  made.  The  naval  part 
of  the  expedition  was  under  the  command  of  Commodore  S.  F. 
Dupont,  while  the  land  force  was  in  charge  of  General  T.  W. 
Sherman.  Many  weeks  had  been  spent  in  getting  together  this 
great  fleet  and  in  making  it  ready,  yet  the  secret  had  been  so 
well  kept  that  no  one  but  the  commanding  officers  knew  where 
it  was  intended  to  strike,  and  there  was  scarcely  a  Confederate 
port  on  the  Atlantic  or  the  gulf  coast  where  it  was  not  expected. 
The  expedition  sailed  October  29,  and  after  a  stormy  passage, 
during  which  four  transports  were  lost  and  several  disabled, 
most  of  the  vessels  came  to  anchor  off  Hilton  Head,  on  the 
coast  of  South  Carolina. 

Hilton  Head  is  an  island  forming  the  south  side  of  the  en- 
trance of  Port  Royal  Harbor,  about  fifty  miles  below  Charles- 
ton. To  guard  this  entrance,  the  Confederates  had  built  there 
a  large  earthwork  called  Fort  Walker,  and  on  Bay  Point  of 
Philip's  Island,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  channel,  which  is 
about  two  miles  wide,  a  smaller  one  named  Fort  Beauregard. 
"Within  the  harbor  were  eight  steamers,  mostly  so  small  that 
they  were  called  the  "  mosquito  fleet,"  under  command  of 
Commodore  Josiah  Tatnall,  a  former  officer  of  the  United 
States  navy,  who  had  served  bravely  in  the  last  war  with  Great 


1861.] 


PORT  ROYAL. 


153 


Britain.  The  Confederate  troops  in  the  vicinity,  numbering 
about  three  thousand  men,  were  in  command  of  General  T.  F. 
Drayton,  whose  brother,  Captain  Percival  Drayton,  was  the  com- 
mander of  the  Union  vessel  Pocahontas  in  this  expedition. 

Port  Eoyal  is  one  of  the  finest  harbors  on  the  Atlantic  coast, 
and  is  the  entrance  from  the  sea  to  the  most  fertile  and  most 
thickly  settled  part  of  South  Carolina.  Several  rivers  flow  into  it, 
and  numerous  natural  canals, between  the  many  low  islands  which 
lie  along  the  coast,  furnish  safe  inland  navigation  between 
Charleston  and  Savannah.  On  the  islands  grows  the  famous  sea- 
island  cotton,  far  more  valuable  than  the  upland  cotton,  and  on 
the  low  grounds  of  the 
mainland  is  raised  the  long- 
grain  rice,  the  best  in  this 
country.  On  Port  Eoyal 
Island,  about  sixteen  miles 
from  the  sea,  is  the  town 
of  Beaufort,  the  county 
seat  of  the  district  and  a 
favorite  summer  resort  of 
rich  South  Carolinians. 
More  than  three  hundred 
years  ago  (15G2)  a  colony 
of  French  Protestants, 
driven  from  France  by  the 
religious  persecutions, came  Samuel  f.  Dotont. 

to  Port  Eoyal,  and  built  a  fort  not  far  from  Beaufort.  They 
were  soon  forced  to  leave  by  danger  of  starvation,  but  the 
French  names  of  Beaufort  and  Port  Eoyal  still  keep  them  in 
memory. 

The  attack  on  the  forts  began  about  half-past  nine  o'clock 
on  the  morning  of  the  7th  of  November.  The  steam  war-ves- 
sels, led  by  the  Wabash,  Commodore  Dupont's  flag-ship,  passed 
slowly  between  the  two  forts,  always  moving  so  that  the  enemy 
would  have  no  fixed  mark,  and  firing  their  broadsides  as  they 
went.  When  a  sufficient  distance  within,  the  line  turned  and 
passed  outward  in  front  of  Fort  Walker.  In  this  way  the  fight 
went  on,  the  fleet  passing  round  and  round.  A  few  gunboats 
were  left  within  the  harbor  to  watch  Tatnall's  "mosquito  fleet." 
The  garrisons  in  the  forts  fought  bravely,  but  the  fire  from  the 


154 


DEEDS  OF  TEE  NAVY. 


[1861. 


ships  was  too  severe  to  be  borne;  shot  and  shell  rained  on  them 
so  fast  that  it  was  not  safe  for  a  man  to  show  himself,  and  after 
about  four  hours  the  forts  were  abandoned  and  their  defenders 
ran,  every  one  for  himself,  to  the  woods  the  other  side  of  the 
island,  whence  they  escaped  to  Savannah.      The  vessels  were 


more  or 
less  injur- 
ed in  the 
fight,  the 
"Wabash 
having 


Jp|,  been  struck 
C  thirty-four  times; 
but  the  loss  was  only 
eight  killed  and  twen- 
ty-three wounded.  The 
forts  were  knocked  all  to  pieces, 
and  most  of  their  guns  were  dis- 
mounted; the  loss  was  about  a 
hundred  killed  and  wounded. 
In  the  afternoon  the  troops  were  land- 
ed, and  permanent  possession  taken  of  the 
The  flag  hoisted  over  Fort  Walker  was  the 
first  ensign  of  the  Union  raised  on  South  Carolina 
soil  after  the  act  of  secession.  The  news  was  re- 
ceived in  all  the  loyal  States  with  great  joy,  for  it 
was  felt  that  a  most  important  advantage  had  been 
The  fleet,  which  had  before  been  cut  off  from 
every  port  below  Fortress  Monroe,  had  now  a  splendid  harbor 
for  refuge  in  case  of  storms,  and  a  place  well  fitted  for  send- 
ing expeditions  into  the  enemy's  country.  The  Confeder- 
ates felt  that  they  had  suffered  a  great  loss,  which  they  feared 


Port  Royal 
Entrance. 


gained 


1861.] 


MASSA  BOBOLITIOtf. 


m 


would  soon  lead  to  the  capture  of  Charleston  and  Savannah. 
They  knew  that  the  coast  country  was  now  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Unionists,  and  fearful  that  the  cotton  would  fall  into  their 
hands  they  burned  great  ^quantities  of  it.  Most  of  the  planta- 
tions in  the  neighborhood  were  deserted,  the  slaves  in  many 
cases  being  left  to  shift  for  themselves. 

The  district  around  Beaufort  had  at  that  time  a  population 
of  about  forty  thousand,  of  whom  three  fourths  were  slaves, 
mostly  employed  on  the  cotton  and  rice  plantations.  As  soon 
as  the  Union  troops  had  obtained  a  footing,  they  began  to  flock 
to  the  camps,  men,  women,  and  children,  with  their  little  prop- 
erty tied  up  in  bundles,  inquir- 
ing for  "Massa  Bobolition," 
whom  they  had  heard  was  com- 
ing to  free  them.  Many  begged 
earnestly  to  be  taken  on  board 
the  ships,  and  they  seemed  to 
think  it  a  great  hardship  when 
they  were  refused.  But  in  time 
they  became  reconciled  to  their 
lot,  and  made  themselves  very 
useful,  going  to  their  work  sing- 
ing cheerily, 

"  Ole  massa  tink  it  day  ob  doom, 
And  we  ob  jubilee." 

The  taking  of  the  forts  at 
Port  Royal  led  to  the  occupa- 
tion before  the  end  of  the  year  of  Beaufort  and  most  of  the 
chain  of  coast  islands  along  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  One 
of  the  most  important  captures  was  that  of  Big  Tybee  Island, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Savannah  River,  shown  in  the  map  on  page 
154.  It  was  defended  by  a  martello  tower  of  solid  masonry, 
built  there  during  the  last  war  against  Great  Britain,*  and  by 


Martello  Tower  on  Tybee  Island. 


*  Martello  towers  were  first  built  during  the  reign  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.,  in  the  islands  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica,  as  a  defence  against 
pirates.  They  were  generally  round,  and  were  defended  by  one  large  gun 
on  the  top,  so  mounted  that  it  could  be  fired  in  all  directions.  The 
British,  who  had  seen  them  in  Corsica,  built  some  of  them  along  the 
coast  of  England  when  Bonaparte's  invasion  was  expected;  and  the  one 
on  Tybee  Island  was  constructed  like  them. 


156 


DEEDS   OF  THE  NAVY. 


[1861. 


a  battery  at  its  base.  The  enemy  gave  it  up  without  a  struggle, 
and  the  flag  of  the  Union,  the  first  in  Georgia,  was  hoisted  over 
the  tower.  The  possession  of  this  island  shut  the  port  of 
Savannah  against  blockade-runners,  and  gave  the  Union  troops 
a  point  from  which  to  attack  Fort  Pulaski,  on  an  island  a  little 
further  up  the  river. 

In  December  an  attempt  was  made  to  close  Charleston  Har- 
bor by  sinking  a  fleet  of  sixteen  old  vessels,  loaded  with  stone, 
across  the  main  channel.  Great  expectations  were  formed  of 
this,  and  some  of  the  newspapers  said  that  Charleston  Harbor 
was  a  "  thing  of  the  past."  Those  friendly  to  the  Confederates 
called  it  a  "barbarous  act,"  and  the  British  Government  pro- 
tested against  it.  But 
the  stone  fleet  proved  a 
failure :  the  sea  soon  broke 
up  the  hulks  of  the  ves- 
sels, and  they  with  their 
cargoes  disappeared  in 
quicksands  below. 

While  Commodore 
Dupont's  fleet  was  bat- 
tling with  the  storm  off 
the  coast  of  South  Caro- 
lina, an  event  took  place 
among  the  West  In- 
dia Islands  which  bid 
fair  for  a  time  to  involve 

Charles  Wilkes.  th(J    United     States    in    a 

war  with  Great  Britain.  The  Confederate  Government,  anxious 
to  get  the  aid  of  some  of  the  European  powers,  had  ap- 
pointed Messrs.  James  M.  Mason  and  John  Slidell  commis- 
sioners, the  one  to  England  and  the  other  to  France,  to  try 
to  induce  the  governments  of  those  countries  to  recognize 
the  independence  of  the  seceded  States.  These  gentlemen 
sailed  from  Charleston  on  the  night  of  October  12  in  a 
blockade-runner,  went  to  Havana,  and  sailed  from  there  in 
the  British  mail  steamer  Trent  for  the  island  of  St.  Thomas, 
where  they  expected  to  take  a  steamer  for  Southampton,  Eng- 
land. Captain  Charles  Wilkes,  famous  as  the  commander  of 
the  American  Exploring  Expedition  to  the  South  Seas,  hap- 


1861/ 


MASON  AND  SLIDELL. 


\m 


pened  to  be  returning  at  this  time  from  the  coast  of  Africa  in 
command  of  the  steam  sloop-of-war  San  Jacinto,  and  hearing 
in  Havana  of  the  intention  of  the  Confederate  commissioners  to 
sail  in  the  Trent,  he  determined  to  take  them.  He  therefore 
watched  for  the  Trent  in  the  Bahama  Channel,  and  when  she 
came  up  hailed  her  to  heave  to.  She  paid  no  attention  to 
this  and  kept  on  her  course;  but  when  a  shell  was  fired  across 
her  bow,  she  stopped.  A  boat,  in  command  of  Lieutenant 
Donald  M.  Fairfax,  was  sent  to  her,  with  orders  to  take  the 
commissioners  prisoners,  and  bring  them  with  their  papers  and 
baggage  on  board  the  San  Jacinto.  Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell 
refused,  and  several  armed  boats  were  then  sent  from  the  San 
Jacinto  and  the  commissioners  and  their  secretaries,  Messrs. 


Fort  Warren. 

Eustis  and  McFarland,  were  taken  by  force,  amid  the  protests 
and  insults  of  the  officers  and  passengers  of  the  Trent.  They 
were  carried  to  Boston,  where  they  were  confined  in  Fort  War- 
ren, then  used,  like  Fort  Lafayette,  as  a  prison  for  political 
offenders. 

Lieutenant  Fairfax,  who  was  a  Virginian  by  birth  and  a 
connection  of  Mason's  by  marriage,  conducted  the  delicate  busi- 
ness with  the  utmost  courtesy  and  kindness.  A  story  was  cur- 
rent at  the  time  that  Miss  Slidell,  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Slidell, 
had,  in  the  excitement  of  the  moment,  slapped  Lieutenant 
Fairfax  in  the  face;  but,  fortunately  for  the  credit  of  American 
womanhood,  Lieutenant  Fairfax  was  able  to  deny  this. 

Captain  Wilkes  received  universal  praise  for  his  act  when 
he  reached  New  York,  and  many  public  honors  were  bestowed 


158  DEEDS  OF  TEE  NAVY.  [1861 

upon  him.  He  was  even  thanked  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
and  by  Congress;  but  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Seward  and  some 
others  of  our  more  thoughtful  statesmen  saw  at  once  that  his 
act,  however  just  it  might  be  according  to  British  law,  was  not 
right  according  to  American  law.  In  1812  the  United  States 
went  to  war  with  Great  Britain  because  that  country  claimed 
the  right  to  search  the  vessels  of  any  neutral  or  friendly  power, 
and  to  take  from  them  not  only  the  goods  of  an  enemy  but  also 
any  subjects  of  her  own  found  there.  Her  men-of-war  contin- 
ually stopped  American  vessels  on  the  high  seas,  and  took  from 
them  British  seamen  to  serve  in  their  navy.  As  their  officers 
were  not  very  careful  in  performing  this  duty,  many  thousand 
Americans  were  thus  impressed  and  made  to  serve  in  their 
ships.  The  United  States  Government  protested  in  vain  against 
this,  and  it  was  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  war  of  1812-1814. 
Great  Britain  was  thus  forced  to  let  American  seamen  alone, 
but  she  did  not  even  then  give  up  the  right  she  had  claimed. 

The  act  of  Captain  Wilkes,  therefore,  though  right  in  British 
law,  could  not  be  justified  by  us  because  we  had  always  claimed 
that  the  flag  of  a  friendly  power  protects  everything  on  board  a 
vessel,  unless  the  vessel  be  engaged  in  an  illegal  act.  The  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  therefore  determined  to  give  up 
the  prisoners  if  Great  Britain  should  demand  them,  and  Mr. 
Adams,  our  minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  was  notified  of 
the  fact. 

The  news  of  the  "outrage,"  as  the  English  newspapers 
chose  to  call  the  seizure  of  the  commissioners,  was  received  with 
great  indignation  in  Great  Britain,  and  the  government,  with- 
out waiting  to  hear  whether  the  United  States  Government 
would  justify  the  act  of  Captain  Wilkes,  made  hasty  prepara- 
tions for  war.  The  great  iron-clad  Warrior  was  made  ready  for 
sea,  cannon  were  bought,  and  troops  ordered  to  Canada.  The 
Guards  went  on  board  the  vessels  to,  the  music  of  "  I'm  off  to 
Charleston,"  for  they  thought  they  were  going  to  aid  the  Con- 
federates. Much  of  this  was  mere  bluster  on  the  part  of  the 
British  Government,  for  at  the  time  when  these  preparations 
were  going  on  it  had  in  its  possession  a  despatch  from  Washing- 
ton which  showed  that  the  United  States  Government  would 
treat  the  matter  in  a  friendly  spirit.  But  the  party  then  in 
power  in  England  was  not  friendly  to  the  United  States,  and 


1861.]  THE  TWO  DOGS.  159 

would  have  been  very  glad  to  see  the  country  divided;  so  Lord 
Lyons,  the  British  Minister  at  Washington,  was  instructed  to 
demand  an  apology  and  the  immediate  release  of  the  prisoners, 
many  hoping  probably  that  the  United  States  would  refuse. 

The  temper  of  the  people  was  such  that  if  there  had  then 
been  an  Atlantic  telegraph  it  is  probable  that  war  would  have 
taken  place.  Mr.  Lincoln  illustrated  the  feeling  of  the  two 
nations  by  a  story.  "My  father,"  he  said,  "had  a  neighbor 
from  whom  he  was  separated  only  by  a  fence.  On  each  side  of 
the  fence  were  two  savage  dogs,  who  kept  running  backward 
and  forward  all  day  long,  barking  and  snapping  at  each  other. 
One  day  they  came  to  a  large  opening  recently  made  in  the 
fence.  Did  they  take  advantage  of  this  to  devour  each  other? 
Not  at  all;  scarcely  had  they  seen  the  gap  when  they  both  ran 
back,  each  on  his  own  side,  with  their  tails  between  their  legs. 
These  two  dogs  are  fair  representatives  of  America  and  Eng- 
land." And  so  it  turned  out:  the  United  States  Government 
agreed  at  once  to  release  the  prisoners,  mainly  on  the  ground 
that  the  seizure  was  contrary  to  American  principles,  and  the 
two  peoples,  who  appeared  to  be  on  the  brink  of  Avar,  experienced 
a  feeling  of  relief  when  the  matter  was  settled,  and  treated  each 
other  thereafter  with  greater  respect  than  before.  Mr.  Seward, 
by  way  of  a  joke,  in  closing  the  affair,  sent  word  to  the  British 
consul  in  Portland,  Maine,  that  the  British  troops  which  had 
started  for  Canada  to  prepare  for  hostilities  against  the  United 
States  would  be  permitted  to  land  at  that  port  to  escape  the 
dangers  of  the  ice  in  the  bay  of  St.  Lawrence. 

Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell  and  their  secretaries  were  delivered 
up,  January  1,  1862,  to  the  British  authorities,  much  to  the 
disappointment  of  the  Confederates,  who  had  hoped  that  a  war 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  would  lead  to 
their  independence.  The  commissioners  arrived  at  the  end  of 
the  month  in  England,  but  the  excitement  in  regard  to  them 
had  nearly  died  away  and  they  attracted  little  attention. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
MILL  SPRING.— FORT  HENRY. 

zollicoffer  ix  kentucky.— camp  wildcat.— general  schoepf.— sham  secession  of 
Kentucky.— General  Buell.— Colonel  Garfield.— Battle  of  Mill  Spring.— Death  of 
Zollicoffer.— The  Yankees  will  Cotch  us.— Contraband  Fun.— Schnapps!  Schnapps'. 
—Albert  Sidney  Johnston.— Forts  Henry  and  Donelson.— Commodore  Foote.— Tor- 
pedoes.—Capture  of  Fort  Henry.— General  Tilghman.— a  Brave  Boy. 

THE  reader  will  remember  that  eastern  Kentucky  had  been 
invaded  in  the  autumn  of  1861  by  a  Confederate  force 
under  General  Zollicoffer.  Zollicoffer  had  been  sent  into  east 
Tennessee,  a  country  much  like  West  Virginia,  and  really  a 
continuation  of  its  mountain  region,  for  the  same  reason  that 
Lee  had  been  sent  into  West  Virginia — to  put  down  the  strong 
Union  feeling  which  existed  there.  As  soon  as  he  heard  that 
General  Polk  had  occupied  Columbus,  he  marched  through 
Cumberland  Gap  into  Kentucky  to  help  the  Confederates  to 
get  possession  of  that  State.  The  Unionists  gathered  to  resist 
this  invasion,  and  formed  a  post  called  Camp  Wildcat  in  the 
Cumberland  Mountains,  under  Colonel  Garrard.  His  force  was 
small,  but  it  was  soon  increased  by  two  or  three  regiments 
under  General  Albin  Schocpf,  a  Hungarian,  who  had  formerly 
been  an  officer  in  the  Austrian  army,  and  later  had  served  under 
General  Bern  in  the  war  for  Hungarian  independence.  Zolli- 
coffer attacked  Camp  Wildcat  on  the  morning  of  October  21, 
and  again  in  the  afternoon,  but  was  each  time  repulsed,  and  at 
night  retired  into  the  hills.  But  soon  after,  General  Schoepf, 
who  had  taken  command,  hearing  that  a  large  force  from  Buck- 
ner's  camp  at  Bowling  Green  was  marching  against  him,  re- 
treated toward  the  Ohio,  and  left  that  part  of  Kentucky  again 
open  to  Zollicoffer. 

With  Polk  at  Columbus,  Buckner  at  Bowling  Green,  and 
Zollicoffer  in  the  valley  of  the  Cumberland,  all  southern  Ken- 
tucky was  now  in  the  power  of  the  Confederates.  They  set  up 
a  separate  government  at  Russellville,  and  on  November  20  a 
convention  which  met  there  passed  an  ordinance  of  secession. 
Bowling  Green  was  made  the  new  capital  of  the  State,  and  in 


1862.] 


SECESSION  IN  KENTUCKY. 


161 


December  Kentucky  was  received  into  the  Confederacy.  But 
this  was  the  act  of  only  a  few  politicians;  most  of  the  people  of 
the  State  were  strong  Unionists  during  the  war,  and  few  but 

those  in  the  Confederate  army 
pretended  to  recognize  this 
sham  secession. 

In  the  mean  time  General 
Don  Carlos  Buell  had  been 
sent  to  take  General  Sher- 
man's place  as  commander  of 
the  Department  of  the  Ohio, 
with  headquarters  at  Louis- 
ville. General  Buell  soon 
had  a  force  of  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  thousand  men, 
with  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  pieces  of  artillery.  This 
great  army  was  divided  into 
four  divisions,  commanded 
by  Generals  Alexander  McD. 
McCook,  Ormsby  M.  Mitchell, 
George  II.  Thomas,  and 
Thomas  L.  Crittenden,  and 
was  stretched  across  the  State 
so  as  to 


oppose 
the  Con- 
federate 
lines, 
with  the 
inten- 
tion    of 

Operations  in  Eastern  Kentucky.  driving 

the  enemy  out  of  Kentucky,  and  then  pushing  on  into  Ten- 
nessee. 

In  January,  1862,  Major-General  Humphrey  Marshall,  a 
graduate  of  West  Point  and  well  known  as  a  colonel  of  cavalry 
in  the  Mexican  War,  was  at  Paintsville,  on  the  Big  Sandy  Biver, 
in  command  of  a  Confederate  force  of  about  twenty-five  hun- 
dred men,     Colonel  James  A.  Garfield  was  sent  with  two  regi- 


162 


MILL  SPRING.— LORT  IIENRY. 


[1862. 


ments  of  infantry  and  a  small  body  of  cavalry  to  drive  them 
away;  but  when  Marshall  heard  of  his  coming  he  moved  toward 
Prestonburg.  Garfield  followed,  and  coming  up  with  him, 
fought  him  all  the  afternoon  until  dark,  gaining  a  complete 
victory,  driving  him  from  all  his  positions.  Colonel  Garfield 
was  commissioned  a  brigadier-general  of  volunteers  for  this 
service. 

Most  of  the  force  which  Zollicoffer  had  brought  into  the  State 
was  now  stationed  at  Mill  Spring,  shown  in  the  map  (p.  161),  but 
part  was  in  an  intrenched  camp,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Cum- 
berland River,  named  Camp  Beach  Grove,  where  provisions  and 

necessaries  were  landed  by  a 
little  steamer  running  between 
there  and  Nashville.  The 
army  had  been  increased  to 
about  ten  thousand  men,  and 
was  under  the  command  of 
Major-General  George  B. 
Crittenden,  brother  of  the 
s  Union  general  of  the  same 
name.  In  January,  1862,  part 
^SHS   1^  HlHl  Hk  °f  the  division  of  the  Union 

army  under  General  Thomas 
..^-.--  moved   against    Camp   Beach 

sHH    H  \-  '  Grove  from  Columbia,,  while 

James  A.  Garfield.  i  i  l  ~\  n  i 

another  part,  under  General 
Schoepf,  marched  from  Somerset  in  the  same  direction.  A 
small  stream  called  Fishing  Creek,  which  lay  between  these  two 
bodies,  was  much  swollen  by  rains,  and  the  Confederate  General 
Crittenden,  hoping  to  defeat  Thomas  before  Schoepf  could  join 
him,  ordered  Zollicoffer  to  advance  with  five  or  six  thousand 
men.  Thomas's  force  was  nearly  equal  in  number,  but  his  men 
were  in  better  condition.  The  Confederate  troops  had  been 
living  on  short  rations,  and  were  indeed  half  starved.  A  letter 
written  by  all  officer  of  one  of  the  regiments  said :  '  I  have  at 
length  approached  that  point  in  a  soldier's  career  when  a  hand- 
ful of  parched  corn  maybe  considered  a  first-class  dinner." 

The  two  armies  met  at  daybreak  of  Sunday,  January  19, 
about  ten  miles  from  Beach  Grove.  The  Union  line  was  at 
first  driven  back  on  the  left,  but  the  Fourth  Kentucky,  under 


1862.]  DEATH  OF  ZOLLICOFFER.  163 

Colonel  S.  S.  Fry,  sent  by  General  Thomas  to  that  part  of  the 
field,  soon  changed  the  fortune  of  the  day.  While  Colonel  Fry 
was  about  to  lead  a  charge  upon  a  Mississippi  regiment,  Gen- 
eral Zollicoffer,  accompanied  by  a  single  aide,  rode  up  to  him 
and  said:  "You  are  not  going  to  fight  your  friends,  are  you? 
These  men"  (pointing  to  the  Mississippians  opposite)  "are  all 
your  friends."  Zollicoffer,  who  was  riding  a  splendid  gray  horse, 
wore  a  light  drab  overcoat  buttoned  to  the  chin,  hiding  his  uni- 
form, and  probably  thought  that  Fry  would  take  him  for  a 
Union  officer.  Fry  was  deceived,  and  said,  "No,  I  do  not  in- 
tend to  fire  upon  our  men;"  and  he  did  not  see  his  mistake 
until  Zollicoffer's  companion  fired  at  him  with  a  pistol,  killing 
his  horse.  One  of  Fry's  officers  shot  the  aide,  and  Colonel  Fry 
himself  drew  a  revolver  and  killed  Zollicoffer.  A  Confederate 
soldier  threw  down  his  gun  and  ran  to  take  up  the  body  of  his 
commander  to  bear  it  from  the  field,  but  he  was  shot  in  the 
attempt. 

The  Confederates,  seeing  their  leader  fall,  began  to  give 
way,  and  were  soon  in  confusion.  General  Crittenden  suc- 
ceeded in  reforming  the  line  for  a  few  minutes,  but  the  Union 
troops  pressed  them  so  hard  that  they  broke  and  fled  to  their  in- 
trenched camp  at  Beach  Grove,  leaving  their  dead  and  wounded 
on  the  field.  In  the  afternoon  Thomas,  having  been  joined  by 
Schoepf,  followed  until  darkness  set  in.  The  next  morning  the 
Confederate  works  were  occupied,  the  enemy  having  abandoned 
them  in  the  night  and  fled  across  the  Cumberland  River'  into 
the  mountains.  A  Union  woman  who  lived  near  Monticello 
said  that  they  passed  her  house,  along  the  road  and  through 
the  fields,  all  day  long  on  Monday.  Some  were  on  horseback 
and  some  on  foot,  and  many  were  wounded.  One  man  passed 
with  his  brother  on  his  back.  An  old  man  from  Alabama,  with 
his  two  sons,  stopped  a  moment  to  rest,  asking  for  a  little  food. 
He  had  been  sick  for  months,  and  could  scarcely  totter  along. 
She  invited  him  to  stay,  but  he  said,  "  No,  the  Yankees  are  close 
after  us,  and  will  cotch  and  kill  me."  This  seemed  to  be  the 
universal  fear — "The  Yankees  will  cotch  and  kill  us."  The 
good  woman  forgot  for  the  time  that,  these  miserable  men  were 
enemies,  and  cooked  for  them  and  dressed  their  wounds  until 
late  in  the  night. 

A  gentleman  of  Nashville,  Avhose  slave  accompanied  a  young 


164 


MILL  SPRING.— FORT  HENRY. 


[1862. 


Confederate  officer  in  this  expedition,  asked  the  negro,  on  his 
return  home,  how  long  the  army  was  in  making  the  advance  to 
the  battle-field. 

'•'Bout  four  days,  massa,"  was  the  reply. 
"Four  days!     How  long  were  they  in  marching  back?" 
"'Bout  two  days,  massa." 

"  How  is  that,  Joe?  Could  the  men  travel  faster  coming 
back,  after  a  four  days'  march  and  a  severe  battle?" 

"  Oh!  I  tell  ye,  massa,  it  was  de  music  made  de  difference. 
Dey  marched  dere  to  the  tune  of  'Dixie;'  but  dey  come  back  to 
de  tune  'Fire  in  de  mountains!     Bun,  boys,  run!'  " 

This  battle,  which  is  commonly  known  as  the  battle  of  Mill 

Spring,  is  sometimes  called 

also  Beach  Grove,  Fishing 
Creek,  and  Somerset;  but 
it  was  really  fought  at 
place  called  Logan's 
Boad.  Among  the 
taken  by  Thomas 
twelve  pieces  of  artillery, 
with  caissons  or  ammuni- 
tion wagons,  several  army 
forges,*  a  hundred  and  fifty 
wagons,  more  than  a  thous- 
and horses  and  mules,  many 
small-arms,  and  a  large 
amount  of  stores.  The  Confederates  were  much  grieved  at  this 
defeat,  the  blame  of  which  they  laid  upon  General  Crittenden, 
some  saying  that  he  was  intoxicated  on  the  day  of  the  battle, 
and  others  that  he  was  a  traitor. 

In  a  cabin  in  the  Confederate  works  at  Beech  Grove  some 
of  the  soldiers  found  a  barrel  of  apple  brandy.  Just  as  they 
had  filled  their  canteens  a   German  belonging  to  one  of  the 


a 

Cross 

spoils 

were 


Army  Forge. 


*  An  army  forge  is  a  four- wheeled  -wagon  so  made  that  the  fore  wheels 
may  be  separated  from  the  hind  wheels.  On  the  fore  axle  is  a  box  con- 
taining supplies  and  blacksmiths'  tools,  while  the  hind  part  carries  the 
forge  and  bellows,  as  shown  in  the  picture.  When  needed  for  use  the 
anvil  is  taken  out  and  set  upon  the  stump  of  a  tree.  Such  a  forge  is  very 
useful  in  an  army,  and  is  generally  attached  to  artillery  and  cavalry  corps 
for  skoeinsr  horses  and  doim;  other  metal  work. 


1862.]  SCHNAPPS!  SCHNAPPS!  165 

Western  regiments  came  in,  and  seeing  what  was  going  on, 
said: 

"Halloo,  vat  yon  gets  there?" 

On  being  told  he  ran  to  the  door  and  began  shouting  with 
all  his  might: 

"Hans!  Heinrich!  schnapps!  schnapps!" 

A  dozen  more  rushed  in  in  great  excitement,  and  soon  had 
in  their  canteens  all  that  was  left  of  the  liquor. 

One  of  the  soldiers  who  bad  first  found  the  prize,  thinking 
to  have  a  little  fun,  said: 

"  Boys,  you'd  better  look  out;  this  is  a  doctor's  shop,  and 
there  may  be  strychnine  in  that  brandy." 

The  Germans  paused  and  looked  at  each  other  with  a  mourn- 
ful expression,  as  if  they  feared  it  might  be  true.  At  last  one 
of  them,  apparently  struck  by  a  happy  thought,  said: 

"  Mein  Gott,  poys,  I  tells  you  vat  I  do:  I  trinks  some,  and 
if  it  don't  kill  me,  den  you  trinks." 

He  took  a  long  and  hearty  pull  at  his  canteen,  smacked  his 
li]is,  and  said,  with  a  wink  of  the  eye: 

"All  right,  poys,  go  ahead!" 

This  victory  won  eastern  Kentucky  from  the  Confederates, 
and  left  the  way  open  through  the  mountains  into  Tennessee; 
but  the  roads  were  so  bad  at  that  time  of  the  year,  and  the 
country  was  so  barren  of  provisions,  that  it  was  determined  to 
strike  first  in  another  quarter.  The  Confederate  line  of  defence 
in  the  West  was  then  in  command  of  General  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston,  of  Kentucky,  formerly  one  of  the  bravest  and  best 
officers  of  the  United  States  army.  The  main  body  of  his  army 
was  at  Bowling  Green,  and  the  western  end  of  the  line  Avas  at 
Columbus,  which  General  Polk  had  strongly  fortified.  Between 
these  two  points  were  two  great  rivers,  the  Cumberland  and  the 
Tennessee,  stretching  southward  like  two  roads  into  the  heart 
of  the  Confederacy.  Their  mouths  at  Smithland  and  Paducah, 
where  they  join  the  Ohio,  were  in  possession  of  the  Union 
troops,  who  were  liable  at  any  moment  to  advance  up  them  with 
their  gunboats  into  Tennessee.  To  prevent  this,  the  Confed- 
erates had  built  two  forts  at  a  place  eighty  or  ninety  miles  above 
their  mouths,  where  the  two  rivers  are  only  ten  or  twelve  miles 
apart.  Fort  Henry,  the  smaller  of  these  fortifications,  was  on 
the  east  bank  of  the  Tennessee  River,  while  Fort  Donelson,  the 


166 


MILL  SPRING.— FORT  HENRY. 


[1862. 


larger,  was  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Cumberland  Kiver,  both 
being  in  the  State  of  Tennessee  just  below  the  border  of  Ken- 
tucky. The  two  were  connected  by  a  line  of  telegraph  and  by 
a  good  road,  so  that  reinforcements  could  easily  pass  from  one 
to  the  other. 

In  the  beginning  of  February,  1862,  seven  Union  gunboats 
left  Cairo  for  Paducah  and  steamed  thence  up  the  Tennessee 
River.  Four  of  these,  the  Cincinnati  (the  flag-ship),  the  Essex, 
the  Carondelet,  and  the  St.  Louis,  were  armored  or  iron-clad; 
the  others,  the  Conestoga,  the  Tyler,  and  the  Lexington,  being 
ordinary  wooden  gunboats.  This  little  fleet,  under  command 
of  Commodore  Andrew  Hull  Foote,  was  accompanied  by  several 

transports  carrying  two  di- 
visions of  General  Grant's 
army,  under  Generals  Mc- 
Clernand  and  C.  F.  Smith. 
The  armored  gun-boats 
looked  much  like  floating 
houses  as  they  moved  along. 
Their  sides  and  ends,  built 
of  heavy  timber  covered 
with  thick  iron  plates,  were 
made  so  slanting  that  can- 
non-shot would  glance  off 
from  them;  and  they  were 
fitted  with  very  powerful 
engines  so  that  they  could 
stem  the  strong  currents  of 
the  rivers  and  be  easily  moved  in  battle.  Their  cannon  were 
very  heavy,  some  being  large  enough  to  carry  a  ball  ten  inches 
in  diameter,  and  each  had  a  mortar  for  throwing  bombs  more 
than  a  foot  in  diameter. 

Fort  Henry  was  built  on  low  ground  at  a  bend  in  the  river, 
about  two  miles  above  a  little  island  called  Panther  Island.  It 
was  in  command  of  General  Lloyd  Tilghman,  of  Maryland,  a 
graduate  of  West  Point,  who  had  under  him  about  three 
thousand  men,  some  in  the  fort  and  some  in  a  fortified  camp 
outside.  In  the  channel  near  Panther  Island  had  been  laid 
many  torpedoes,  in  which  the  Confederates  had  placed  great 
hopes.     The  position  of  these  was  found  out  in  a  singular  way. 


Andrew  H. 


1862.] 


CONFEDERATE  TORPEDOES. 


167 


Some  of  Grant's  scouts  had  stopped  at  a  farm-house  near  the 
bank  of  the  river,  in  which  many  women  had  gathered  for 
safety.  One  of  the  women  said  that  her  husband  was  a  soldier 
in  Fort  Henry. 

"  By  to-morrow  night,  madam,"  remarked  one  of  the  scouts, 
"  there  will  be  no  Fort  Henry;  our  gun-boats  will  take  care  of 
it." 

"  Not  a  bit  of  it,"  replied  she.  "  They  will  all  be  blown  up 
before  they  get  past  the  island." 

This  made  the  scout  and  his  companions  curious  to  know 
what  was  going  to  blow  them  up,  and  they  told  the  woman  they 
would  carry  her  away  a  prisoner  if  she  did  not  tell  all  she  knew. 


Foote's  Fleet. 


She  thereupon  told  about  the  torpedoes  and  pointed  out  the 
places  where  they  had  been  sunk,  and  when  search  was  made  eight 
were  found  and  fished  up.  They  were  sheet-iron  cylinders  about 
five  and  a  half  feet  long,  pointed  at  each  end,  and  each  containing 
about  seventy-five  pounds  of  powder,  with  a  simple  apparatus  for 
'firing  it  when  touched  by  a  vessel's  bottom.  Such'  a  torpedo, 
if  well  made,  would  blow  a  hole  in  any  vessel,  but  in  nearly  all 
of  these  the  powder  was  found  so  damp  as  to  be  worthless. 

The  troops  were  landed  a  few  miles  below  the  fort,  McCler- 
nand  on  the  east  side  with  orders  to  get  between  Henry  and 
Donelson,  and  Smith  on  the  west  side  to  attack  the  fort  with 
artillery  from  Fort  Hieman,  a  half-finished  work  on  a  hill  oppo- 
site Henry.  But  there  had  been  a  heavy  rain  during  the  night 
and  the  roads  were  so  muddy  that  the  troops  did  not  move  as 


168 


MILL  SPRING.— FORT  HENRY. 


[186$ 


fast  as  was  expected,  and  when  Grant  reached  the  fort  it  had 
already  surrendered  to  Commodore  Foote  (Feb.  6)  after  a  bom- 
bardment of  an  hour  and  a  quarter.  General  Tilghman  had 
fought  with  great  bravery.  To  avoid  a  useless  loss  of  life  he 
had  placed  most  of  his  men  outside  of  the  fort,  where  they  could 
escape  in  case  of  disaster,  and  had  shut  himself  up  within  the 
works  determined  to  defend  them  to  the  last.  But  nothing 
could  withstand  the  fire  from  the  heavy  guns  of  the  fleet,  which 
rained  an  incessant  storm  of  shot  and  shell  into  the  fort.  Some 
cannon  were  dismounted,  one  exploded,  and  many  of  the  cabins 
in  and  around  the  works  were  in  flames.     Seeing  the  folly  of 


Fort  Henry. 


holding  out  longer,  General  Tilghman  ordered  the  Confederate 
flag  to  be  lowered.  A  white  flag  was  raised  on  the  ramparts,  a 
boat  from  the  St.  Louis  was  sent  ashore,  and  the  stars  and 
stripes  were  hoisted  once  more  over  the  soil  of  Tennessee,  amid 
cheers  from  the  whole  fleet. 

General  Tilghman  asked  for  Commodore  Foote,  and  a  boat 
was  sent  from  the  Cincinnati  with  a  message  that  the  Commo- 
dore would  be  glad  to  see  him  on  board.  When  General  Tilgh- 
man met  the  Commodore,  he  asked  him  what  terms  he  would 
give  him. 

"None,  sir,"  replied  he;  "your  surrender  must  be  uncon- 
ditional." 

"Well,  sir,  if  I  must  surrender,  it  gives  me  pleasure  to 
surrender  to  so  brave  an  officer  as  you." 


1862. 


A  Bit  AVE!  BO'f. 


160 


Just  then  the  steward  announced  that  dinner  was  ready, 
and  Commodore  Foote,  pleasantly  remarking  to  General  Tilgh- 
man  that  as  the  fortunes  of  war  had  deprived  him  of  his  own 
dinner  he  should  he  glad  to  have  him  a  guest  at  his  table, 
courteously  led  the  way  to  the  cabin. 

Only  about  sixty  men  surrendered  with  General  Tilghman, 
all  the  rest  having  escaped  to  Fort  Donelson.  Twenty  cannon 
and  a  large  quantity  of  supplies  and  munitions  of  war  were 
found  in  the  fort.  But  few  were  killed  and  wounded  on 
either  side,  but  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight  the  Essex  had  her 
boiler  pierced  by  a  cannon-ball 
and  thirty  of  her  men  were  badly 
scalded  by  the  escaping  steam. 
She  had  to  drop  astern  and 
took  no  further  part  in  the  tight. 
The  Essex  was  named  after  the 
old  frigate  Essex  of  the  war  of 
1812,  in  which  Commodore  David 
Porter  made  his  famous  cruise, 
and  was  commanded  by  Com- 
mander William  D.  Porter,  son  of 
the  gallant  commodore.  He  was 
badly  scalded  by  the  explosion, 
but  recovered. 

Among  tbe  wounded  in  Fort 
Henry  was  a  young  Wisconsin 
boy,  a  prisoner,  who  had  his  arm  shattered  by  a  ball  from  one 
of  the  gunboats.  He  was  taken  into  one  of  the  cabins  and  Dr. 
Voorhies,  of  Mississippi,  a  surgeon,  began  to  operate  upon  the 
injured  limb.  He  had  just  bared  the  bone  when  a  large  shell 
came  crashing  through  the  hut,  but  the  little  fellow  kept  on 

*  The  picture  shows  the  torpedo  with  a  piece  cut  out  so  that  the  inside 
can  be  seen.  A  is  the  outer  shell;  B,  an  air-chamber,  to  make  the  tor- 
pedo float  with  that  end  up;  C,  the  gunpowder;  D,  a  pistol,  with  its 
muzzle  in  the  powder  and  its  trigger  connected  with  the  rod  E,  which 
had  prongs  to  catch  on  the  bottom  of  a  vessel  passing  over  it;  F  F,  iron 
bands  with  rings,  to  which  the  weights  G  G  were  fastened.  The  torpedo 
was  placed  so  that  a  vessel  coming  up  against  the  current,  the  direction 
of  which  is  shown  by  the  arrows,  would  strike  the  prong.  This  would 
move  a  lever,  which  would  pull  a  cord  connected  with  the  trigger  of  the 
pistol  and  tire  it  into  the  gunpowder. 


NFEDERATE   TORPEDO.* 


170 


MILL  SPRING.— FORT  BENRT. 


[1862. 


talking  while  the  bone  was  being  sawed,  without  showing  the 
least  fear.     Presently  another  shot  went  plunging  by  them. 

"  This  is  getting  too  hot  for  me,"  said  the  doctor,  and  tak- 
ing the  boy  up  in  his  arms  he  carried  him  into  one  of  the  bomb- 
proofs,  where  he  finished  the  operation. 

"If  you  think  this  hot,"  replied  the  boy,  "  it  will  be  a  good 
deal  too  hot  for  you  by  and  by." 

"Ah!"  said  the  doctor  afterward,  "I  should  like  to  see  that 
boy  again.     He  was  the  bravest  little  fellow  I  ever  saw." 


Lieutenant-General. 


Majob-G  kukeui*. 


Beigadiek-Gexeral 


LlEUTENANT-CoLONKL. 

(silver  Uave*.) 


jpS&ESSil 


^ 


^5? 


v    vi  ■ 


Major. 
(gold  leaves.) 


FlRST  LHLTI.Vi:.T. 


Second  Lieutenant. 


(Shoulder  Straps  of  the  United  States  Armt.) 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
FORT  DONELSON— NASHVILLE. 

The  Tennessee  River  Opened.— General  Grant.— Commodore  Foote  as  a  Preacher.— 
Siege  of  Fort  Donelson.— Sharpshooters.— A  Gallant  Boy.— Sleet  and  Snow.— Foote 
and  his  Gunboats.— The  Commodore  Wounded.— A  Bold  Sortie.— The  Confederates 
Checked.— Escape  of  Floyd  and  Pillow.— Forest  and  his  Cavalry.— Unconditional 
Surrender  Grant.— Triumphal  Entry.— Clarksville  and  Nashville  Occupied.— An- 
drew Johnson.— A  Sharp  Newsboy.— The  Confederates  Abandon  Columbus.— John 
Morgan— The  Disobedient  Soldier.— An  Unfortunate  Gatekeeper.— A  Costly  Load 
of  Meal.— Morgan  and  the  Telegraph  Operator. 

THE  capture  of  Fort  Henry  opened  the  Tennessee  to  the 
Union  fleet,  and  the  three  wooden  gunboats  actually  went 
up  the  river  as  far  as  Florence,  Alabama,  seizing  and  destroy- 
ing Confederate  vessels  and  property.  The  drawbridge  of  the 
railroad  between  Bowling  Green  and  Memphis,  which  crosses 
the  Tennessee  River  about  ten  miles  above  Fort  Henry,  was  also 
destroyed.  This  was  of  great  importance,  because  it  cut  the 
railway  connection  between  the  Confederate  positions  at  Bowling 
Green  and  Columbus.  But  to  make  the  success  a  permanent 
one  it  was  necessary  to  take  Fort  Donelson,  which  it  will  be 
remembered  was  only  about  twelve  miles  from  Fort  Henry;  for 
it  was  possible  that  the  Confederates  might  send  large  reinforce- 
ments to  that  place  and  then  recapture  Fort  Henry. 

General  Grant,  who  saw  the  necessity  of  attacking  Fort 
Donelson  at  once,  sent  Commodore  Foote  back  to  Cairo  to  get 
more  troops  and  to  take  his  gunboats  up  the  Cumberland  in- 
stead of  the  Tennessee  River.  On  the  Sunday  after  his  arrival 
in  Cairo  the  Commodore  attended  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
A  large  congregation  Avas  in  attendance,  but  the  minister  did 
not  come.  Commodore  Foote,  who  was  himself  always  very 
punctual,  became  impatient  at  the  delay  and  asked  one  of  the 
elders  to  conduct  the  services;  on  his  refusing,  he  entered  the 
pulpit  himself,  read  a  chapter  in  the  Bible,  made  a  prayer,  and 
then  preached  a  sermon  from  the  text:  "Let  not  your  hearts 
be  troubled.  Ye  believe  in  God:  believe  also  in  me."  The 
congregation  were  delighted  at  the  discourse,  and  an  army  chap- 
lain, who  had  come  in  meanwhile,  congratulated  the  Commo- 


172 


FORT  DONELSON.— NASHVILLE. 


[1862. 


dore  on  his  success  in  preaching.      "Ah!"   replied   the   old 
sailor,  "you  should  have  come  forward  and  taken  my  place." 

Donelson  was  a  much  larger  and  stronger  fort  than  Henry. 
It  was  built  upon  a  hill  commanding  a  bend  in  the  Cumberland 
River,  and  enclosed  about  one  hundred  acres  of  ground.  It  had 
also  strong  water-batteries — that  is,  batteries  at  the  edge  of  the 
water — and  side  defences,  all  mounted  with  heavy  guns.  Back 
of  the  fort  the  forest  had  been  cut  down,  the  trees  being  felled 
with  their  branches  lying  outward  so  as  to  form  an  abatis, 
and  about  a  mile  in  the  rear  and  on  the  sides  was  a  strong 
breastwork  of  logs  and  earth,  with  rifle-pits  and  places  for  can- 
non.    Just  above  the  fort,  within  the  outer  line  of  fortifications, 

was    the  little   town  of 
Dover. 

General  Johnston 
knew  that  if  Donelson  fell 
Kentucky  would  have  to 
be  given  up,  because  the 
Confederate  troops  there 
would  then  be  between 
Buell  and  Grant,  and 
might  be  all  captured; 
he  also  knew  that  its  loss 
would  lead  to  the  fall  of 
Nashville  and  to  the  giv- 
ing up  of  the  greater  part 
of  Tennessee.  He  there- 
fore determined  to  with- 
draw the  best  of  his  troops  from  Bowling  Green,  and,  as  he 
said,  to  "fight  for  Nashville  at  Donelson."  General  Pillow 
and  Buckner  were  sent  there  with  heavy  reinforcements,  and 
on  the  morning  of  the  13th  of  February  General  Floyd,  who 
had  been  driven  out  of  West  Virginia  in  1861  by  Eosecrans,  ar- 
rived with  more  troops  and  took  the  chief  command,  Pillow 
being  second  to  him.  There  were  then  in  the  fort  about  sixteen 
thousand  troops. 

General  Grant  moved  against  Donelson  from  Fort  Henry 
on  the  morning  of  Wednesday,  February  12,  with  fifteen  thou- 
sand men,  and  before  night  he  had  taken  positions  nearly  sur- 
rounding the  enemy's  lines  on  the  land  side.     A  third  small 


Ulysses  S.  Grant. 


1862.] 


8HABPSII0  0  TEES. 


173 


division,  under  General  Lewis  Wallace,  was  left  at  Fort  Henry. 
In  the  morning,  after  an  examination  of  the  ground,  Grant  saw 
that  his  line,  stretched  out  over  such  a  distance,  was  too  weak 
to  make  a  general  attack,  and  he  determined  to  wait  for  the 
gunboats  and  reinforcements;  but  there  was  a  heavy  artillery 
fire  all  day,  and  the  riflemen  kept  the  Confederates  busy  by 
picking  off  their  gunners.  In  the  afternoon  attacks  were  made 
on  batteries  both  on  the  right  and  on  the  left  of  the  line,  but 
they  were  rejmlsed  by  the  Confederates,  and  the  Union  troops 
suffered  severe  losses. 

Among  the  Union  riflemen  who  did  the  best  service  was  the 
Sixty-sixth  Illinois,  known  as 
Berge's  Sharpshooters,  from  the 
name  of  their  colonel.  They 
were  armed  with  Henry  rifles, 
and  each  man  had  been  chosen 
for  his  skill  as  a  marksman. 
Their  uniform  was  gray,  with  a 
gray  felt  hat  ornamented  with  a 
squirrel-tail  plume,  dyed  black. 
The  sharpshooters  used  to  creep 
up  behind  trees,  rocks,  or  any- 
thing which  would  hide  them, 
until  they  got  near  enough  to 
pick  off  the  gunners  of  the  enemy. 
One  of  them  got  behind  a  stump' 
so  near  to  the  fort  that  he  could 
speak  to  those  within,  and  shot 
down  the  gunners  as  fast  as  they 
tried  to  load  one  of  the  cannons. 
The  Confederates  set  men  with 
rifles  to  watch  him,  but  they  could  never  get  a  good  shot  at 
him,  and  finally  they  had  to  give  up  using  that  cannon. 

Another  sharpshooter  had  a  fight  which  lasted  nearly  all 
day  long  with  one  of  the  best  of  the  Confederate  marksmen. 
The  Union  man  lay  behind  a  log,  and  the  Confederate  behind 
the  breastwork.  Each  tried  to  deceive  the  other  by  holding  up 
his  hat  or  his  coat  on  his  ramrod.  Whatever  was  thus  shown 
on  either  side  at  once  got  a  bullet  through  it,  but  both  men 
were  careful  not  to  expose  any  part  of  their  persons.    It  seemed 


Berge's  Sharpshooter. 


174  FORT  DONELSON.— NASHVILLE.  [1862. 

as  if  the  two  might  fire  at  each  other  forever  in  this  way  with- 
out doing  any  harm.  About  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
however,  the  Confederate,  not  having  heard  from  his  enemy  for 
several  minutes,  took  a  quick  look  over  the  breastwork.  His 
head  was  not  in  sight  five  seconds,  but  in  that  brief  time  the 
sharpshooter,  who  was  ever  on  the  watch,  sent  a  bullet  into  his 
brain,  and  the  poor  fellow  fell  dead,  scarcely  knowing  what  had 
hit  him. 

Another  story  is  told  of  a  boy  about  eleven  years  old,  whose 
father,  a  Union  volunteer,  had  been  taken  prisoner  some  time 
before.  Having  no  mother,  and  no  one  to  care  for  him,  he 
made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  goto  fight  his  fathers  captors, 
and  smuggled  himself  on  board  of  a  transport  at  Cincinnati 
laden  with  troops  for  the  attack  on  Donelson.  When  the 
troops  marched  from  Fort  Henry,  he  joined  the  Seventy-eighth 
Ohio  and  trudged  along  with  the  rest.  One  of  the  officers 
questioned  him  and  tried  to  turn  him  back,  but  he  would  not 
go.  On  the  field  of  battle  he  succeeded  in  getting  a  musket, 
and  posting  himself  behind  a  tree  fired  at  every  head  he  saw 
above  the  enemy's  breastwork.  The  Confederate  sharpshooters 
tried  hard  to  drive  him  away,  but  he  kept  himself  well  hid- 
den all  the  time.  At  last  a  Confederate  soldier  on  the  outside  of 
the  breastwork  took  good  aim  at  him,  but  the  little  fellow  was 
too  quick  and  brought  him  down  with  a  shot  from  his  musket. 
As  the  Confederate  had  a  fine  Minie  rifle,  the  boy  ran  out, 
while  the  bullets  were  flying  in  all  directions,  and  despoiling 
the  soldier  of  his  rifle,  cartouch,  and  knapsack,  retreated  in 
safety  to  his  tree,  and  returned  to  the  Seventy-eighth  at  night 
with  all  his  prizes. 

The  weather,  beautiful  and  spring-like  in  the  morning, 
changed  in  the  afternoon  to  a  violent  rain-storm,  followed  at 
night  by  severe  cold  with  sleet  and  snow.  The  Union  soldiers, 
poorly  clothed  and  without  tents,  and  many  even  without 
blankets,  which  they  had  thrown  aside  in  the  warm  morning, 
suffered  terribly.  They  dared  not  light  any  fires,  for  fear  of 
making  a  mark  for  the  enemy's  guns;  so  officers  and  men  were 
obliged  to  shiver  through  the  long  night,  watching  anxiously 
for  the  dawn.  The  Confederates  were  little  better  off,  for  a 
large  part  of  them  had  to  lie  on  their  arms  in  the  trenches,  not 
knowing  when  an  attack  might  be  made.     The  wounded  be- 


1862.] 


SIEGE  OF  FORT  DONELSON. 


175 


tween  the  two  lines  still  lay  where  they  had  fallen,  and  in  the 
morning  only  frozen  corpses  were  found. 

General  Grant  now  ordered  General  Wallace  to  come  to  his 
aid  with  the  troops  left  at  Fort  Henry.     Wallace  arrived  about 


'  *&     ^y  *^        %>"        **!    ^f 


'**  '  *  U      Pf    CSS'1 


Siege  of  Fort  Donelson. 


noon  (February  14),  and  the  gunboats  and  reinforcements,  about 
five  thousand  men,  having  in  the  mean  time  come  up  the  river, 
he  was  posted  between  the  divisions  of  McClernand  and  Smith, 
as  shown  in  the  map.     This  made  the  Union  lines  on  the  land 


176  FORT  DONELSON— NASHVILLE.  [1862. 

side  complete,  while  the  gunboats  in  the  river  cut  off  all  hope 
of  escape  on  the  other  side. 

Commodore  Foote,  who  had  had  no  time  to  repair  the  dam- 
age received  by  his  gunboats  in  the  attack  on~Fort  Henry, 
opened  the  assault  on  Donelson  in  the  afternoon  of  the  14th 
with  the  ironclads  St.  Louis  (flag-ship),  Carondelet,  Pittsburgh, 
and  Louisville,  and  the  wooden  gunboats  Conestoga  and  Lex- 
ington. He  could  bring  only  twelve  guns  to  bear,  while  more 
than  twenty  in  the  fort  and  water-batteries  were  throwing  the 
heaviest  shot  and  shell  upon  his  little  fleet.  For  an  hour  the 
bombardment  raged  furiously;  several  of  the  water-batteries 
were  silenced,  the  men  flying  from  their  guns  to  the  fort 
above,  and  the  Commodore  was  about  to  pass  up  the  river  to  get 
a  better  position  above  the  batteries,  when  the  Louisville  and 
the  St.  Louis  had  their  steering  apparatus  disabled,  and  drifted 
helplessly  down  with  the  current.  About  the  same  time  Com- 
modore Foote,  who  was  in  the  pilot-house,  was  severely  wounded 
by  fragments  of  iron,  caused  by  a  solid  shot  which  struck  the 
house.  His  foot  and  leg  were  badly  bruised,  and  the  pilot,  who 
stood  by  his  side,  was  instantly  killed.  The  Confederates,  see- 
ing their  success,  ran  back  to  their  guns  and  again  opened  fire, 
and  the  Pittsburgh  and  the  Carondelet,  both  badly  injured, 
had  to  retire  from  the  fight.  The  gunboats  were  struck  by 
shot  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  times,  and  had  fifty-four  men 
killed  and  wounded.  After  this  repulse,  General  Grant  made 
up  his  mind  that  he  would  have  to  lay  siege  to  the  fort  in 
regular  form,  and  Commodore  Foote  returned  to  Cairo  to  have 
his  disabled  gunboats  repaired,  and  to  bring  up  the  mortar-boats, 
which  had  been  delayed. 

But  the  Confederates,  though  successful  in  repelling  the 
assaults  both  by  land  and  water,  were  much  discouraged,  and 
could  see  no  hope  of  holding  the  place.  Their  troops  were  bet- 
ter off  than  the  besiegers,  for  they  had  well-built  barracks,  but 
the  Union  artillery  kept  up  a  contimial  fire  of  shells  which, 
bursting  in  and  over  the  fort,  worried  them  greatly.  Besides, 
they  had  no  confidence  in  their  officers,  who  showed  by  their 
actions  their  unfitness  to  command  in  such  a  situation.  At  a 
council  held  in  the  evening  of  February  14,  General  Floyd  said 
the  place  could  not  be  held,  and  proposed  that  the  troops 
should  try  in  the  morning  to  cut  their  way  out  through  the 


1862.]  FALL  OF  FORT  DONELSOK  177 

Union  lines,  and  thus  escape  toward  Nashville.  The  attack 
was  made,  and  came  very  near  being  a  success.  Pillow,  with 
about  ten  thousand  men,  attacked  McClernand's  right  at  early 
dawn,  while  Bnckner  prepared  to  move  against  Wallace. 
Grant  had  gone  on  board  the  St.  Louis  to  see  Foote.  Part  of 
McClernand's  division  was  thrown  into  disorder  and  forced  back, 
and  Pillow,  sure  of  success,  sent  an  aide  to  tclegraj)h  to  Johns- 
ton that  he  had  won  a  victory.  Johnston  sent  the  dispatch  to 
Eichmond,  and  on  the  next  Monday  the  Eichmond  Enquirer 
published  the  news,  and  said:  "  This  splendid  feat  of  arms  and 
glorious  victory  to  onr  cause  will  send  a  thrill  of  joy  over  the 
whole  Confederacy." 

But  "there's  many  a  slip  'twixt  the  cup  and  the  lip."  Gen- 
eral "Wallace  soon  came  to  McClernand's  aid,  and  by  the  mid- 
dle of  the  day  the  Confederates  were  checked.  McClernand's 
regiments  were  formed  again,  and  Grant,  coining  upon  the  field 
and  finding  that  Pillow  had  paused  in  the  attack,  ordered  a 
general  advance  along  the  line.  Smith  forced  his  way  over 
the  enemy's  intrenchments  on  the  left,  while  all  the  lost  ground 
was  regained  on  the  right,  and  the  Confederates  were  driven 
back  within  the  shelter  of  their  works. 

Both  parties  slept  on  their  arms,  the  Union  men  confident 
of  victory  in  the  morning,  the  Confederates  seeing  nothing  be- 
fore them  but  surrender.  The  former  had  lost  fifteen  hundred 
men  in  the  day's  struggle,  the  latter  two  thousand.  All  was 
now  confusion  in  the  fort.  Floyd,  believing  that  the  United 
States  authorities  were  very  anxious  to  capture  him  on  account 
of  his  misdeeds  when  he  was  Secretary  of  War,  gave  up  the 
command  to  Pillow  and  announced  his  intention  to  try  to 
escape.  But  Pillow,  declaring  that  it  was  useless  to  attempt  a 
further  defence,  resigned  the  command  to  Buckner,  and  de- 
clared that  he  should  follow  Floyd.  There  were  two  small 
steamers  in  the  river,  and  on  these  the  two  commanders,  alar<re 
number  of  other  officers,  and  about  three  thousand  men  suc- 
ceeded in  escaping  to  Nashville.  Seeing  the  desertion  of  their 
leaders,  the  troops  lost  all  discipline  and  sought  each  his  own 
safety.  Men  crowded  to  the  banks  to  secure  a  passage  across, 
but  to  their  disappointment  the  steamboats  went  up  the  river 
instead  of  crossing  and  returning  as  they  had  expected,  and 
the  remainder  were  left  to  their  fate.     Colonel  Forrest  and  his 


178 


FORT  DONELSON.— NASHVILLE. 


[1862. 


cavalry,  about  eight  hundred  in  number,  escaped  by  a  by-path 
along  the  river  bank. 

When  Sunday  morning  dawned  the  Union  forces  prepared 
to  renew  the  assault,  but  the  white  flag  was  flying  in  all  parts 
of  the  works.  Buckner,  the  only  one  of  the  commanders  who 
had  any  notion  of  military  dignity,  had  bravely  remained  to 
share  the  fate  of  his  men.  He  sent  a  message  to  Grant,  asking 
what  terms  he  would  grant  him.  Grant  replied,  "No  terms 
other  than  unconditional  and  immediate  surrender  can  be  ac- 
cepted. I  propose  to  move  immediately  upon  your  works." 
After  this,  Grant,  the  initials  of  whose  name  are  U.  S.  G.,  was 
called  by  the  soldiers  Unconditional  Surrender  Grant.  As 
Buckner  could  not  help  himself,  he  was  obliged  to  give  up  the 

fort  with  everything  in  it. 
Among  the  spoils  were  thir- 
teen thousand  five  hundred 
prisoners,  three  thousand 
horses,  seventeen  large  guns 
and  forty-eight  field-guns, 
many  thousand  muskets,  and 
a  large  quantity  of  stores.  On 
the  next  morning  two  more 
regiments  of  Tennessee  infan- 
try, not  having  heard  of  the 
surrender,  marched  in  to  re- 
inforce the  garrison,  and  were 

Simon  B.  Buckner.  ^   obliged   t()   jay  down    ^^ 

arms,  so  that  the  prisoners  amounted  in  all  to  about  fifteen 
thousand. 

The  triumphal  entry  of  the  Union  troops  into  the  fort  on 
Sunday  morning  was  a  splendid  sight.  The  day  was  bright  and 
beautiful,  and  as  the  regiments  marched  in  one  after  another, 
with  their  flags  floating  gayly  in  the  wind  and  the  bands  play- 
ing "The  Star-Spangled  Banner"  and  "Hail  Columbia,"  the 
gunboats  and  transports,  adorned  with  flags  and  streamers 
and  their  decks  crowded  with  men  shouting  themselves  hoarse, 
fired  salutes  as  they  steamed  up  the  narrow  river. 

The  news  of  the  great  victory  was  received  with  joy  through- 
out the  loyal  States,  and  all  felt  that  Bull  Run  had  at  last  been 
avenged.     Salutes  were  fired  and  flags  flung  to  the  breeze  all 


1862.]  NASHVILLE  EXCITED.  179 

over  the  country.  The  secretaries  of  the  army  and  of  the  navy 
issued  orders  congratulating  the  troops,  and  Generals  Grant, 
McClernand,  and  Wallace  were  made  major-generals  of  volun- 
teers. The  Southern  people,  deceived  by  Pillow's  vainglorious 
boasting,  had  expected  a  success,  and  when  the  truth  became 
known  they  were  as  much  cast  down  as  they  had  at  first  been 
elated.  It  was  a  terrible  blow  to  them,  and  though  not  wholly 
discouraged,  they  felt  that  if  they  won  their  independence  it  would 
have  to  be  at  a  fearful  cost  and  sacrifice,  much  greater  than  they 
had  expected  when  they  began  the  war.  Floyd  and  Pillow  were 
blamed  by  everybody,  and  the  Eichmond  government  relieved 
them  both  from  their  commands. 

General  Johnston,  who  had  left  Bowling  Green  and  fallen 
back  with  the  rest  of  his  army  to  the  Cumberland  Kiver  oppo- 
site Nashville,  now  saw  that  the  loss  of  Port  Donelson  rendered 
a  further  retreat  necessary,  for  Commodore  Foote's  gunboats 
might  at  any  time  go  up  to  Nashville  and  destroy  the  great 
suspension-bridge  there.  On  Sunday  morning  the  Nashville 
newspapers  had  published  dispatches  announcing  a  "glorious 
victory,"  and  the  city  was  wild  with  joy;  but  about  the  time  for 
morning  service  in  the  churches  it  was  whispered  around  that 
Donelson  had  fallen.  As  soon  as  the  news  got  abroad,  the 
churches  were  emptied  and  the  people  thronged  the  streets  in 
the  greatest  excitement.  This  was  increased  when  General 
Johnston's  army  began  to  cross  the  river  and  to  pass  through 
the  city.  Johnston  had  got  the  news  early  in  the  morning,  and 
seeing  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  defend  Nashville,  deter- 
mined to  retreat  southward  to  Murfreesboro.  Governor  Harris 
and  the  legislature,  collecting  as  many  of  the  State  papers  as 
they  could,  fled  by  the  railway  to  Memphis.  The  cars  were 
crowded  with  men,  women,  and  children,  bearing  their  valu- 
ables in  their  arms,  and  vehicles  of  every  kind  loaded  with 
goods  were  passing  through  the  streets  on  their  way  to  the 
country. 

Floyd  and  Pillow,  who  had  reached  Nashville  with  the  few 
troops  that  had  escaped  from  Donelson,  had  been  left  behind  by 
Johnston  to  see  to  the  removal  of  the  Confederate  stores  and 
provisions.  On  Monday  a  rumor  went  round  that  Foote's  gun- 
boats were  coming,  and  Floyd  ordered  that  the  stores  should 
be  thrown  open  to  the  poor.     A  scene  of  great  confusion  fol- 


180 


PORT  D0NEL80N.— NASHVILLE. 


[18G3. 


lowed,  which  soon  became  almost  a  riot.  The  mob  seized  every- 
thing they  could  lay  hands  on,  and  Forrest's  cavalry  had  to 
charge  them  to  keep  order.  The  troops  added  to  the  confusion 
by  destroying  Confederate  property.  Two  steamboats  which 
were  being  made  into  gunboats  were  burned,  cannon  were 
spiked,  the  great  bridges  across  the  Cumberland  were  destroyed, 
and  the  last  of  the  Confederate  troops  retreated  soutbward  and 
left  Nashville  to  its  fate. 

Both  General  Grant  and  Commodore  Foote  were  anxious  to  go 
up  the  river  at  once  and  take  Nashville,  but  Halleck  sent  orders 
to  Grant  to  let  the  gunboats  go  no  further  than  Clarksville,  and 
then  to  send  them  back  to  Cairo.  Grant  was  much  annoyed 
at  this,  but  was  obliged  to  obey;  so  Commodore  Foote  went  to 
Clarksville,  which  he  took  possession  of  on  the  20th.     Three 

days  afterward,  just  a  week  after 
the  fall  of  Donelson,  part  of 
General  Buell's  army,  which  had 
followed  Johnston  in  his  retreat 
from  Bowling  Green,  arrived  at 
Nashville.  Soon  after  the  Cones- 
toga,  with  several  tran  sports 
bearing  part  of  Grant's  army, 
reached  Nashville.  As  the  State 
government  had  fled  and  the 
capital  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
United  States,  it  was  necessary 
to  form  a  new  government,  and 
Andrew  Johnson,  then  United 
States  Senator  from  Tennessee,  was  appointed  by  President 
Lincoln  military  governor  of  Tennessee. 

While  the  Union  troops  were  marching  into  Nashville  they 
were  followed  through  the  streets  by  crowds  of  boys  anxious  to 
seethe  "Yanks."  Some  of  the  youngsters,  whose  wits  had 
probably  been  sharpened  by  a  life  in  the  streets,  cracked  jokes 
with  the  soldiers  and  seemed  greatly  to  enjoy  the  occasion.  One 
newsboy,  bolder  than  the  rest,  cried  out  near  a  group  of 
mounted  officers,  "Hurrah  for  Jeff  Davis!"  An  officer  near 
him  turned  sharply  around  and  said,  not  altogether  in  good 
humor: 

"  Hurrah  for  the  devil,  sir!" 


Andrew  Johnson. 


1862.] 


JOHN  MORGAN. 


181 


"He!  he!  he!"  laughed  the  youngster;  "well,  hurrah  for 
yer  own  side,  and  I'll  holler  for  mine!" 

The  officer  could  not  repress  a  smile  while  his  companions 
laughed  aloud  at  his  discomfiture,  and  the  boy  slipped  through 
the  crowd  crying,  "Here's  the  Nashville  Patriot,  only  five 
cents." 

A  few  days  after  the  evacuation  of  Nashville,  the  Confed- 
erates, seeing  that  Columbus  was  liable  to  fall  in  the  same  way 
with  Donelson,  abandoned  that  place,  spiking  many  of  their 
guns  and  burning  their  buildings.  General  Polk,  with  the 
greater  part  of  his  force,  fell  back  to  Corinth,  leaving  about  five 
thousand  men  to  defend 
Island  No.  Ten  and  the  bat- 
teries on  the  river  bank  op- 
posite it.  Thus  Kentucky 
was  lost  to  the  Confederates, 
as  well  as  a  large  part  of 
Tennessee,  while  the  more 
Southern  States  were  laid 
open  to  the  advance  of  the 
victorious  Union  armies. 

Shortly  after  the  fall  of 
Nashville,  Captain  John 
Morgan,  who  was  scouting 
in  the  rear  of  Johnston's 
army,  began  to  be  promi- 
nent. John  Hunt  Morgan, 
though  born  in  Alabama,  had  lived  many  years  in  Lexington,  Ken- 
tucky, where  he  was  noted  when  young  as  the  leader  in  almost  all 
the  boyish  pranks  in  town.  As  he  grew  up,  tall,  strong,  agile, 
and  handsome,  he  became  a  general  favorite  and  had  great 
influence  among  his  associates.  When  nineteen  years  old 
he  served  in  Humphrey  Marshall's  cavalry  in  the  Mexican 
war  and  fought  at  Buena  Vista.  He  was  about  thirty-five 
years  old  when  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  and  like  many  other 
Kentuckians  joined  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy.  In  the 
army  he  showed  himself  to  be  a  splendid  horseman,  a  fine 
shot,  and  an  excellent  officer,  and  he  soon  gathered  around 
him  a  body  of  men  who,  as  daring  as  himself,  were  willing  to 
follow  him  on  any  perilous  enterprise.     He  became  one  of  the 


John  Hunt  Morgan. 


182  FORT  DONELSOK— NASHVILLE.  [1862. 

most  successful  of  the  Southern  guerrilla  leaders — that  is,  leaders 
of  small  independent  bands  that  roamed  around  the  country, 
attacking  army  trains,  destroying  bridges,  and  picking  up  strag- 
glers from  the  enemy.  But  he  kept  a  very  strict  discipline  in 
his  company,  so  that  his  men  were  always  well  under  command. 
A  story  is  told  of  him  that  once  when  one  of  his  troopers  re- 
fused to  obey  an  order  on  the  field  of  battle,  he  turned  his  keen 
eyes  upon  him  and  said,  "  Do  you  understand  my  order?" 

"Yes,  Captain;  but  I  cannot  obey,"  was  the  answer. 

"Then  good-by,"  said  Morgan,  and  raising  his  pistol  he 
shot  him  dead.  "  Such  be  the  fate  of  every  man  who  disobeys 
orders  in  the  face  of  an  enemy." 

It  is  said  that  after  that  no  man  ever  waited  for  a  second 
order  from  him. 

Morgan  was  a  great  friend  of  General  Buckuer's,  and  after 
the  general's  capture  at  Fort  Donelson  he  tried  hard  to  capture 
a  Union  general  to  exchange  for  him.  With  this  object  in 
view  he  used  to  prowl  round  the  Union  camps  in  Tennessee, 
hoping  that  good  luck  would  throw  an  officer  in  his  way.  He 
came  very  near  catching  General  Nelson  one  day,  by  lying  in 
ambush  with  some  of  his  men  in  a  cedar  thicket  near  a  toll- 
gate.  Shortly  afterward  the  General  and  his  staff  came  riding 
along  the  road,  but  they  were  stopped  and  turned  back  by  the 
gate-keeper,  who  told  them  about  the  trap  set  for  them.  Gen- 
eral Nelson  escaped,  but  the  next  day  the  poor  gate-keeper  was 
found  in  the  creek,  with  his  hands  tied  and  a  large  stone  fast- 
ened to  his  neck. 

Soon  after  Nashville  was  taken  by  the  Union  forces  Morgan 
went  into  the  city  dressed  as  a  farmer,  with  a  load  of  corn-meal. 
He  drove  up  to  the  commissary's  quarters  and  said  he  had 
brought  the  meal  as  a  gift,  adding  that  there  were  some  Union 
men  around  where  he  lived,  but  they  had  to  be  very  careful  on 
account  of  the  rebel  cavalry.  He  then  went  to  dine  at  the  St. 
Cloud  Hotel,  and  sat  at  table  next  to  General  McCook.  The 
General,  hearing  from  others  that  he  was  the  generous  Union 
farmer  who  had  brought  the  meal  for  the  soldiers,  persuaded 
him  to  take  the  value  of  it  in  gold.  Morgan  then  told  McCook, 
with  a  great  show  of  secrecy,  that  the  notorious  guerrilla  John 
Morgan  was  encamped  with  a  small  body  of  men  not  far  from 
his  house,  and  that  if  he  would  send  one  or  two  hundred  horse- 


1862.]  I  AM  CAPTAIN  MORGAN.  183 

men  out  there  he  would  show  him  how  to  capture  him.  McCook 
sent  the  men  as  directed,  and  Morgan  took  them  all  prisoners. 

Not  long  afterward  Morgan  suddenly  rode  into  Gallatin, 
about  twenty-six  miles  north-east  of  Nashville,  with  forty  men, 
and  after  catching  and  shutting  up  all  the  Union  men  he  could 
find  dressed  himself  in  a  Union  uniform  and  went  to  the  tele- 
graph office,  at  the  railway  station,  a  little  way  out  of  the  town. 

"  Good-morning,"  said  he  to  the  telegraph  operator.  "  What 
news  have  you  ?" 

"  Nothing,  sir,"  replied  the  operator,  who  was  a  blustering 
kind  of  fellow,  "except  that  it  is  reported  that  that  dirty  rebel, 
John  Morgan,  is  this  side  of  the  Cumberland  with  some  of  his 
cavalry.  I  wish  I  could  get  sight  of  the  rascal;  I'd  make  a  hole 
through  him  larger  than  he  would  find  pleasant." 

While  speaking,  the  operator  flourished  a  fine  navy  revolver 
around  his  head  as  if  to  add  strength  to  his  words. 

"Do  you  know  who  I  am?"  quietly  asked  Morgan. 

"I  have  not  that  pleasure,"  answered  the  operator. 

"Well,  give  me  that  pistol;  I  am  Captain  Morgan." 

At  these  words  the  operator  turned  pale,  and  he  sank  into  a 
chair  almost  paralyzed  with  fear. 

When  he  had  sufficiently  recovered  himself,  Morgan  made 
him  telegraph  some  messages  to  Louisville,  and  then  gave  liim 
to  his  men  a  prisoner.  He  stayed  in  Gallatin  two  clays,  hoping 
to  capture  some  trains,  but  news  of  his  coming  had  got  abroad 
and  none  came  in.  He  took,  however,  several  Union  officers 
who  rode  into  town,  and,  after  destroying  a  few  cars  and  one 
locomotive,  carried  his  prisoners  safely  to  the  Confederate  camp. 


CHAPTER    XV. 
ROANOKE.— NEW  BERNE.— PULASKI. 

Expedition  against  Roanoke  Island.— A  Gunboat  Fight.— Fort  Bartow.— a  Gallant 
Attack.— Zor!  Zou!  Zou! — Capture  of  Roanoke  Island.— Elizabeth  City. — Gallant 
John  Davis. — Attack  on  New  Berne.— News  from  Manassas. — Fat.i, of  New  Berne. — 
The  Daily  Progress.— De  Rotten  Balls.— The  Child  of  the  Regiment.— Bombardment 
of  Fort  Macon.— A  Patched  Flag.— Battle  of  South  Mills.— Siege  of  Fort  Put. a  ski. 
— Mortabs  and  how  to  Fire  them.— All's  Well!— A  Regiment  of  Whittlers.— Pulaski 
Surrenders. — Fort  Clinch. — An  Old  Newspaper.— Hold  on,  Mars'  Yankee  ! 

OIST  Sunday,  January  12,  1862,  another  land  and  naval  expe- 
dition, still  more  powerful  than  that  which  had  been  so 
successful  against  Port  Royal,  sailed  southward  from  Hampton 
Roads.  More  than  a  hundred  steam  and  sailing  vessels,  some 
of  them  men-of-war  and  some  transports  for  carrying  troops, 
composed  this  fleet,  the  command  of  which  was  given  to  Com- 
modore Louis  M.  Goldsborough.  The  land  force,  consisting  of 
sixteen  thousand  soldiers,  under  the  general  command  of  Major- 
General  Ambrose  E.  Burnside,  was  in  three  divisions,  under 
Generals  John  G.  Foster,  Jesse  L.  Reno,  and  John  G.  Parke. 
This"  fleet  met  with  a  great  storm  off  Hatteras,  as  severe  as 
the  one  which  hud  scattered  Dupont's  ships,  but  it  finally 
reached  its  destination,  Hatteras  Inlet,  with  the  loss  of  four 
transports,  a  gunboat,  and  a  floating-battery,  and  entered  the 
quiet  waters  of  Pamlico  Sound. 

The  object  of  the  expedition  was  Roanoke  Island,  which,  as 
told  before,  separates  Pamlico  Sound  from  Albemarle  Sound, 
the  two  divisions  of  that  inland  sea  of  North  Carolina,  cut  off 
from  the  main  ocean  by  the  narrow  tongue  of  sand  of  which 
Cape  Hatteras  is  the  most  easterly  point.  The  island,  which  is 
ten  to  twelve  miles  long  by  three  wide,  had  been  strongly  forti- 
fied by  the  Confederates,  in  hope  of  keeping  command  of  Albe- 
marle Sound,  into  which  flow  the  Roanoke  and  Chowan  rivers. 
Albemarle  Sound  can  be  reached  from  the  sea  only  in  this  way, 
for  there  is  no  oj)ening  from  it  directly  into  the  Atlantic.  Bat- 
teries mounting  heavy  guns  had  been  built  to  command  the 
channel,  which  had  been  filled  with  sunken  vessels  fastened 
together  by  piles  driven  into  the  mud,  and  at  the  narrowest 


1862.] 


ROANOKE  ISLAND. 


185 


part  of  the  island  was  an  intrenched  camp  defended  by  about 
three  thousand  men.  There  was  also  a  fleet  of  eight  small  gun- 
boats, under  command  of  Commodore  W.  F.  Lynch,  a  former 
officer  of  the  United  States  navy,  stationed  behind  the  line  of 
piles.  The  department  was  in  command  of  General  Benjamin 
Huger,  whose  headquarters  were  at  Norfolk,  but  the  defences 
were  in  charge  of  General  Wise,  of  Virginia,  who  had  in  all 
about  six  thousand  men. 

On  the  morning  of  Friday,  February  7,  1862,  the  Union 
gunboats  opened  fire  on  Fort  Bartow,  the  strongest  of  the  Con- 
federate works,  and  soon 
all  the  forts  and  the  fleet 
of  Commodore  Lynch 
were  replying  with  shot 
and  shell.  The  Curlew, 
the  largest  of  the  Confed- 
erate gunboats,  was  dis- 
abled in  a  few  minutes 
and,  beginning  to  sink, 
was  run  ashore  under  the 
guns  of  Fort  Forrest, 
on  the  mainland.  The 
rest  of  the  vessels  got  out 
of  reach  of  shot  as  soon  as 
possible,  and  the  guns  of 
the  Union  fleet  were  then 
all  turned  upon  Fort  Bartow,  whose  barracks  were  set  on  fire  by 
the  shells. 

In  the  evening  the  transports  containing  the  troops  arrived, 
and  at  midnight  about  eleven  thousand  men,  under  General 
Foster,  were  landed  at  Ashby's  Harbor,  about  two  miles  from 
Fort  Bartow.  The  water  was  so  shallow  that  the .  boats  could 
not  get  near  the  shore,  and  the  men  were  obliged  to  wade  quite 
a  distance,  often  sinking  up  to  their  waists.  A  cold  rain  was 
falling,  too,  at  the  time,  and,  as  there  was  no  shelter,  all  became 
wet  and  chilled.  At  dawn  (Feb.  8)  they  moved  forward  to 
attack  the  Confederate  battery  at  the  narrow  part  of  the  island. 
Only  a  single  roadway  led  to  this,  with  deep  cypress  swamps 
on  each  side  which  the  enemy  thought  were  impassable.  As 
soon  as  the  Union  troops  appeared  the  Confederates  opened  a 


Benjamin  Huger. 


186  ROANOKE.— NEW  BERNE.— PULASKI.  [1862. 

heavy  fire  on  them  so  that  they  suffered  severely.  They  returned 
the  fire,  but  were  obliged  to  shelter  themselves  behind  trees  or 
in  the  hollows  of  the  ground.  In  the  mean  time  several  regi- 
ments made  their  way  through  the  swamp  on  the  left  so  as  to 
get  on  the  Confederates'  right,  and  while  these  oj>ened  fire  on 
them  the  Hawkins  Zouaves  charged  the  battery  in  front.  Shout- 
ing "Zou!  Zou!  Zou!"  the  red  caps  rushed  over  the  narrow 
causeway,  followed  by  the  Tenth  Connecticut,  and  entered  the 
battery  just  as  the  Fifty-first  New  York  and  the  Twenty-first 
Massachusetts  came  in  from  the  right.  The  Confederates  fled, 
leaving  everything  behind  them.  The  Union  troops  pressed  on 
after  them  to  the  northern  end  of  the  island,  where  about  two 


Troops  Landing  in  Flat-Boat. 

thousand  surrendered,  a  part  escaping  in  boats  to  Nag's  Head. 
About  a  thousand  more  prisoners  were  taken  in  other  parts  of 
the  island. 

Commodore  Goldsborough  had  continued  the  bombardment 
of  Fort  Bartow  while  the  land  fight  was  going  on,  but  about 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  Union  flag  was  hoisted  over 
its  walls,  and  the  crews  of  the  gunboats  greeted  it  with  three 
hearty  cheers.  The  Confederates  burned  the  barracks  in  Fort 
Forrest  opposite,  and  the  Curlew,  which  had  been  run  aground 
under  its  guns.  Among  the  spoils  taken  in  the  different  forts 
were  forty-two  cannons  and  more  than  three  thousand  small- 
arms.  Two  days  afterward  the  gunboats  advanced  into  Albe- 
marle Sound,  and  thence  to  Elizabeth  City,  the  most  important 
town  in  that  part  of  the  State.  Lynch's  fleet  was  found  there, 
supported  by  a  battery  on  the  shore,  but  after  a  short  but 
severe  fight  the  vessels  were  run  aground  and  set  on  fire  by  their 


1862.] 


GALLANT  JOHN  DAVIS. 


187 


crews,  and  all  the  Confederates  fled,  leaving  the  town  in  the 
possession  of  the  Unionists. 

During  the  fight  a  shell  from  one  of  the  Confederate  gun- 
boats passed  through  the  magazine  of  the  steamer  Valley  City, 
and  burst  just  outside  of  it.  John  Davis,  a  gunner's  mate,  was 
busy  passing  out  powder  for  the  guns  when  the  shell  entered, 
but  instead  of  running  out,  as  most  men  would  have  done,  he 
coolly  sat  down  on  the 
open  keg  of  powder,  and 
thus  protected  it  from 
sparks  until  the  fire  was 
put  out.  For  this  gal- 
lant act  he  was  appointed 
an  acting-gunner,  with  a 
salary  of  a  thousand  dol- 
lars a  year,  instead  of 
three  hundred  which  he 
had  been  getting. 

The  capture  of  Roan- 
oke Island  gave  the  gov- 
ernment the  control  of 
Albemarle  and  Curri- 
tuck sounds  and  of  the 
rivers  flowing  into  them, 
as  well  as  the  command 
of  the  country  back  of 
Norfolk,  Virginia,  from 
which  that  city  drew 
most  of  its  supplies.  To 
the  Confederates  it  was 
a  great  disaster,  and,  be- 
ing followed  a  few  days 
after  by  the  loss  of  Fort 
Donelson,  it  aroused  in 
the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  South  a  belief  that  their  rulers 
were  not  doing  their  duty.  An  investigation  was  ordered  in 
the  Confederate  Congress,  but  nothing  came  of  it. 

General  Burnside,  leaving  a  sufficient  force  behind  to  hold 
Roanoke  Island,  collected  his  fleet  of  gunboats  and  his  troops  at 
Hatteras  Inlet,  for  the  purpose  of  making  an  attack  on  New 


Capture  of  New  Berne, 


188  ROANOKE.— NEW  BERNE— PULASKI.  [1862. 

Berne,  an  important  place  at  the  junction  of  the  rivers  Trent 
and  Neuse.  The  fleet,  under  command  of  Commodore  Rowan 
(Commodore  Groldsborough  having  been  recalled  to  Hampton 
Roads  on  account  of  the  attack  on  the  fleet  there  by  the  Merri- 
mack), sailed  on  the  morning  of  March  12,  and  on  the  next 
morning  fifteen  thousand  men  were  landed  on  the  south  bank 
of  the  Neuse,  about  eighteen  miles  from  New  Berne.  The  sol- 
diers, impatient  to  get  ashore,  would  not  wait  for  the  boats  to 
land,  but  jumped  into  the  water  and  waded  waist-deep  to  the 
shore.  As  fast  as  the  regiments  could  form  they  started  on  the 
march  for  New  Berne;  but  rain  fell  nearly  all  daylong,  and  the 
roads  were  almost  impassable.  The  men  waded  knee-deep  in 
mud,  dragging  the  heavy  cannons  by  hand  with  long  ropes 
through  swamps  and  thickets,  while  the  gunboats  passed  up  the 
river  shelling  the  road  in  advance  of  them.  After  a  weary 
march  of  twelve  miles  the  troops  reached  a  place  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  from  the  Confederate  defences,  shown  in  the  map, 
when  they  halted  for  the  night.  The  men  had  no  shelter,  but 
built  fires  in  the  woods  beside  the  road,  and  lay  down  to  rest  on 
the  wet  ground.  More  rain  fell  in  the  night  and  drenched 
everybody  to  the  skin,  but  all  were  up  at  daylight  and  soon  on 
the  way  to  attack  the  enemy's  works.  A  man  on  horseback,  who 
had  just  come  from  New  Berne,  was  arrested  at  a  cross-road, 
and  on  being  questioned  said  that  the  Confederates  had  evacu- 
ated Manassas.  The  joyful  news  was  passed  along  from  regi- 
ment to  regiment,  and  hailed  with  a  storm  of  cheers  that  put 
new  life  into  the  wet  and  jaded  column,  and  they  pressed  on 
with  redoubled  vigor.  The  morning  was  foggy,  but  after  a 
short  march  the  line  of  intrenchments  came  into  view.  They 
reached  from  the  river,  where  the  Confederate  left  was  de- 
fended by  several  forts,  across  the  railroad  track  for  more  than 
a  mile,  and  were  defended  by  about  five  thousand  men  and 
eighteen  guns. 

The  attack  was  made  by  General  Foster  on  the  enemy's  left, 
nearest  the  river,  by  General  Reno  on  the  right,  and  by  General 
Parke  in  front,  while  the  gunboats  shelled  the  batteries  along 
the  river.  There  were  five  of  these  batteries  or  forts,  named 
Dixie,  Thompson,  Brown,  Ellis,  and  Lane,  and  the  channel  of 
the  river  was  further  defended  by  sunken  vessels,  sharpened 
piles,  and  torpedoes.     But  the  forts  were  silenced  one  after 


1862.]  BURNEMBIDE'S  BOYS.  189 

another  by  the  guns  of  the  fleet,  and  the  line  of  intrenchments 
was  won  by  the  troops,  after  a  fight  of  four  hours.  As  soon  as 
the  Confederates  saw  that  there  was  no  hope  of  holding  the 
position,  they  fled  in  confusion,  leaving  all  their  guns,  and 
throwing  away  knapsacks,  blankets,  and  small-arms.  After 
crossing  the  two  bridges  to  New  Berne,  they  burned  the  rail- 
road bridge  and  destroyed  the  draw  of  the  turnpike  bridge,  so 
that  the  Union  troops  could  not  follow  them.  But  the  gun- 
boats, led  by  Commodore  Bowan  in  the  flag-ship  Delaware,  at 
once  pushed  through  the  obstructions  in  the  river  to  the 
wharves  and  took  possession  of  the  town.  The  Confederates, 
who  had  fled  by  the  railroad  to  Goldsboro,  had  set  many  build- 
ings on  fire  before  leaving,  but  the  soldiers  succeeded  in  saving 
most  of  them.  Among  the  spoils  of  the  victory  were  forty-six 
heavy  cannons  and  eighteen  field-guns,  two  hundred  prisoners, 
and  a  large  quantity  of  arms,  ammunition,  and  stores.  Most  of 
the  citizens  fled  from  the  town  on  the  approach  of  the  Union 
troops,  but  as  soon  as  order  was  restored  many  returned  to  their 
homes.  The  New  Berne  Daily  Progress,  a  strong  anti-Union 
newspaper,  was  taken  possession  of,  its  former  editor  having  run 
away  with  the  Confederates,  and  in  a  few  days  its  new  editors 
changed  its  politics  so  completely  that  its  old  owners  would  not 
have  known  it,  for  it  came  out  as  strong  for  the  Union  as  it  had 
ever  been  against  it. 

Among  those  who  seemed  to  enjoy  most  the  capture  of  New 
Berne  were  the  contrabands,  who  flocked  in  from  all  parts  of 
the  country  to  see  "  Massa  Linkum's  men."  They  had  much 
curiosity  to  see  the  gunboats,  the  cannons  which  fired  the  great 
balls,  and  the  shells  which  made  such  a  screeching  as  they  flew 
through  the  air.  The  shells  especially  were  the  subject  of  much 
wonder,  and  they  had  many  questions  to  ask  concerning  them 
and  many  ways  of  explaining  them.  One  day,  while  a  soldier 
was  watching  the  landing  of  some  horses  from  a  vessel  beside 
the  wharf, a  gray-headed  contraband  came  up, touched  his  fur  hat, 
and,  scraping  an  enormous  foot,  said:  "  Well,  boss,  how  is  yer?" 

" Pretty  well,  daddy;  how  are  you?''  replied  the  soldier. 

"Fuss  rate,  I  is.     B'long  to  ole  Burnemside's  boys?" 

"Yes;  great  boys,  ain't  they?" 

"  Well,  I  allow  dat's  so.  Great  man  he  is,  dat's  sartin. 
Yes,  sir!" 


190  ROANOKE.— NEW  BERNE.— PULASKI.  [1863. 

"  Did  you  hear  that  we  were  coming  up  the  river?" 

"  Spected  yeh  was  comin' — but  we  waited  an'  waited  an' 
mos'  guv  yeh  up.  'Deed  we  just  did.  But  one  day  we  heard 
de  big  guns — way  down  ribber — bang,  bang,  bang,  and  de  folk 
'round  yere  began  to  trabble  up  de  rail-track.  Den,  bress  de 
Lord,  we  knew  yeh  was  comin',  but  we  held  our  jaw.  Bimeby 
de  sojers  began  to  cut  stick  too,  and  de  way  dey  trabble!  Gor- 
amighty,  'pears  dey  jes'  make  de  dirt  fly!     Yah,  yah!" 

"Why  were  they  scared  so  bad?"  asked  the  soldier. 

"De  sojers  didn't  skeer  'em  so  much  as  de  black  boats.  De 
sojers'  solid- balls — dey  didn't  mind  dem  much;  but  when  dem 
boats  go  boom — dey  know  de  rotten  balls  was  comin',  an'  dey 
skeeted." 

"Rotten  balls!     What  do  you  mean?" 

"Why,  dem  balls  dat  are  bad.  Fly  all  to  bits — 'deed  does 
dey — play  de  debble  too.  No  dodgin'  'em,  'kase  yeh  don't  know 
whah  dey  goin'  to — strike  yeah  and  fly  yandah." 

"Oh!  I  see,"  said  the  soldier,  smiling,  as  he  became  con- 
scious that  Sambo  meant  the  shells.  "  We  did  have  a  few  bad 
ones." 

Among  the  wounded  at  the  battle  of  New  Berne  was  Mrs. 
Brownell,  wife  of  Sergeant  R.  S.  Brownell,  of  one  of  the  Rhode 
Island  regiments.  She  had  served  in  the  battle  of  Bull  Run, 
in  the  regiment  commanded  by  General  (then  Colonel)  Burnside, 
by  which  she  had  been  adopted  as  the  "  child  of  the  regiment." 
In  the  battle  of  New  Berne  she  was  on  the  field  during  the 
whole  engagement,  taking  care  of  the  wounded  and  encourag- 
ing the  soldiers.  When  the  standard-bearer  of  the  Sixth  Regi- 
ment fell,  she  seized  the  flag,  and  while  bravely  carrying  it 
across  the  field  was  wounded  by  a  bullet.  Her  husband  was 
wounded  also  in  the  fight,  and  the  two  were  sent  to  New  York 
in  the  same  vessel.  The  heroine  of  New  Berne  carried  with 
her  a  Confederate  rifle  which  she  had  picked  up  on  the  battle- 
field, and  of  which  she  was  justly  proud. 

The  capture  of  New  Berne  cut  off  the  port  of  Beaufort,  with 
which  it  was  connected  by  railroad,  from  the  interior.  This 
was  very  important,  because  Beaufort  had  been  a  resort  of 
English  blockade-runners,  the  stores  and  arms  brought  by  which 
had  been  carried  by  rail  to  New  Berne,  and  sent  thence  to  all 
parts  of  the  Confederacy.     A  few  days  after  the  fall  of  New 


1862.]  CAPTURE  OF  FORT*  MACON.  191 

Berne,  Morehead  City,  at  the  end  of  the  railroad,  opposite  Beau- 
fort, was  taken  possession  of,  and  on  March  25  Beaufort  itself 
was  occupied.  But  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  was  still  com- 
manded by  Fort  Macon,  a  work  built  of  solid  masonry  at  the 
end  of  a  long  sand-spit  called  Bogue  Bank,  and  defended  by 
about  five  hundred  North  Carolinians.  General  Parke  crossed 
with  some  troops  on  to  the  other  end  of  this  spit,  and  built 
three  siege-batteries  behind  some  sand-hills.  This  was  very 
dangerous  and  tiresome  work,  for  shot  and  shell  were  fired  from 
the  fort  day  and  night.  The  bomb-firing  at  night  was  a  beauti- 
ful sight.  First  would  come  the  report  of  the  gun,  then  the 
shell  would  be  seen  by  the  light  of  its  twinkling  fuse  mounting 
slowly  in  the  air,  and  then  falling  and  bursting  with  a  brilliant 
flash  and  a  noise  often  louder  than  the  gun  itself.  The  fun  was 
for  a  time  all  on  one  side,  but  the  siege-batteries  were  soon 
finished  and  ready  for  work.  As  the  gunboats  controlled  the 
water-side,  the  fort  was  thus  cut  off  from  all  communication 
with  the  mainland. 

The  bombardment  began  on  the  morning  of  Friday,  April 
25,  and  was  kept  up  steadily  by  both  the  land-batteries  and  the 
gunboats.  The  fort  replied  vigorously,  and  maintained  a  heavy 
fire  until  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  a  white  flag  was 
raised  on  its  walls;  and  in  the  morning  of  the  next  day  the  flag 
of  the  Union  was  once  more  flying  over  Fort  Macon,  which, 
with  Fort  Pulaski,  had  been  seized  by  the  State  authorities 
more  than  a  year  before  (January,  1861).  The  Confederate 
flag  flying  during  the  bombardment  was  made  out  of  the  United 
States  flag  that  was  over  it  when  it  was  taken.  The  stripes  had 
been  ripped  apart  and  then  put  together  again  to  form  the 
broader  bars  of  the  Confederate  ensign,  while  only  enough  of 
the  stars  had  been  left  in  the  union  to  represent  the  States  of 
the  Confederacy,  the  rest  being  cut  out  and  the  holes  thus  made 
left.  The  flag  hoisted  in  its  place  was  found  in  one  of  the  case- 
mates of  the  fort,  it  having  been  taken  by  the  Confederates 
from  the  wreck  of  the  steamer  Union,  which  went  ashore  on 
Bogue  Bank  at  the  time  of  the  Port  Royal  expedition. 

In  the  mean  time  General  Eeno  had  been  sent  to  Eliza- 
beth City,  to  try  to  surprise  a  Confederate  force  about  to 
leave  there  for  Norfolk.  His  forces  were  taken  by  boat  up  the 
Pasquotank  Eiver  and  landed  in  the  night,  but  part  of  them 


192 


ROANOKE.— NEW  BERNE.— PULASKI. 


[1862. 


marched  ten  miles  out  of  their  way  and  when  almost  worn  out, 
having  been  on  their  feet  nearly  twenty-four  hours,  were 
attacked  by  a  body  of  Confederates  posted  in  some  woods  with 
swamps  on  both  sides.  After  a  severe  fight,  in  which  the 
Union  loss  was  the  greater,  the  enemy  were  at  last  repulsed  and, 
after  a  six  hours'  rest  on  the  battle-field,  General  Reno  returned 
to  his  boats.  This  is  called  sometimes  the  battle  of  South  Mills 
and  sometimes  the  battle  of  Camden,  because  it  was  fought  not 
far  from  Camden  Court-House. 

For  the  remainder  of  the  year  the  coast  of  North  Carolina 
remained  in  the  possession  of  the  Union  troops.  Most  of  the 
towns  near  it  were  occupied,  and  its  commerce  was  entirely 
stopped,  excepting  that  carried  on  by  blockade-runners,  which 
often  slipped  through  the  blockading  fleet  and  ran  into  the 
Cape  Fear  River,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  State. 


Fort  Pulaski. 

While  General  Burnside  was  thus  engaged  in  North  Caro- 
lina, other  equally  successful  operations  had  been  carried  on 
further  down  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  reader  will  remember 
that  the  capture  of  Port  Royal  had  led  to  the  occupation  of 
Big  Tybee  Island  at  the  mouth  of  the  Savannah  River,  thus 
threatening  Fort  Pulaski.  This  fortress  was  a  strong  brick 
structure,  with  solid  walls  six  feet  thick  and  about  twenty-five 
feet  high,  built  on  Cockspur  Island,  directly  in  the  mouth  of 
the  river.  The  Union  gunboats  found  a  way  into  the  river 
above  the  fort  oetween  the  low  islands  and  mud-banks,  and 
took  possession  of  Jones's  Island,  where  they  built  an  earth- 
work, called  Battery  Vulcan.  They  also  constructed  a  little 
battery  on  a  small  island  opposite,  and  this  closed  the  river 
behind  the  fort,  so  that  no  gunboats  could  come  down  from 
Savannah  to  help  it.     Meanwhile  eleven  other  batteries  were 


SIEGE  OF  FORT  PtTLASKl. 


103 


built  on  Big  Tybee  Island,  under  the  orders  of  General  Quincy 
A.  Gillmore.  These  batteries,  whose  positions  are  shown  in 
the  map,  were  named  after  distinguished  Union  men.  Nearly 
all  the  work  on  them  had  to  be  done  in  the  night  and  with- 
out lights,  so  that  the  garrison  in  the  fort  should  not  see 
what  was  going  on.  Much  of  the  island  being  little  more  than 
a  quaking  bog,  a  road  had  to  be  made  to  move  the  heavy  guns 
and  mortars  across.  This  was  built  by  laying  bundles  of  brush- 
wood through  the  swamp  and  covering  them  with  heavy  planks. 
Over  this  narrow  causeway  the  men  had  to  drag  the  great  mor- 
tars and  guns  loaded  on  strong  wheels  called  sling-carts.  It 
sometimes  took  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  to  move  a  single 
mortar,  and  frequently  one  of  them  would  slip  from  the  sling- 


Siege  of  Fort  Pulaski. 

cart,  when  great  labor  was  necessary  to  keep  it  from  sinking  to 
the  bottom  of  the  bog  through  eleven  or  twelve  feet  of  mud. 

The  mortar  is  a  kind  of  short  cannon,  used  for  throwing 
bombs,  and  shaped  something  like  an  apothecary's  mortar,  from 
which  it  gets  its  name.  The  one  in  the  picture  is  called  a 
13-inch  mortar,  because  its  mouth  is  broad  enough  to  take  in  a 
bomb-shell  thirteen  inches  in  diameter.  Such  a  bomb  weighs 
more  than  two  hundred  pounds,  and  is  too  heavy  for  one  man 
to  lift;  it  is  therefore  carried  from  the  magazine  to  the  mortar 
by  two  men  with  a  kind  of  clamp  held  up  by  a  stout  pole.  A 
bag  of  powder,  containing  about  twenty  pounds,  is  put  down  the 
monster's  throat,  and  then  a  bomb  is  dropped  in  on  top  of  it. 
The  bomb,  which  is  hollow,  is  filled  with  powder  and  fitted 
with  a  fuse,  which  is  lighted  by  the  firing  of  the  mortar.  When 
all  is  ready,  a  string  is  pulled  which  snaps  the  lock,  and  the 


194 


ROANOKE.— NEW  BERNE.— PULASKI. 


[1862. 


great  mortar  goes  off  with  a  concussion  which  shakes  everything 
around,  while  the  noise  is  almost  deafening.  The  bomb  mounts 
higher  and  higher  in  the  air  and  finally  comes  down  within  the 
enemy's  works,  where  it  explodes  with  a  loud  noise  and  a  cloud 
of  smoke,  throwing  jagged  pieces  of  iron  in  every  direction.  It 
is  to  guard  against  these  fearful  weapons  that  bomb-proofs  are 
built  in  forts. 

On  the  night  before  the  bombardment  was  to  begin  the  men 
were  busily  at  work  in  the  trenches  getting  the  guns  and  ammu- 
nition ready  for  the  morning's  work.  All  noises  on  their  side 
were  drowned  in  the  roar  of  the  surf,  which  rolled  uj)  inces- 
santly on  the  ocean  side  of  the  island;  but  now  and  then  the 
"All's  well "  of  the  sentinel  on  the  wall  of  the  fort,  unconscious 
of  what  was  going  on  so  near  him,  could  be  distinctly  heard. 

"Ah!"  said  a  soldier  at 
work  preparing  ammu- 
nition, "you  wouldn't 
say  that  if  you  could  see 
what  we  are  about  over 
here." 

The  officer  in  charge 
of  Battery  Totten  found 
that  no  fuse-plugs  had 
been  provided  for  the 
10-inch  mortars.  After 
vainly  trying  several 
made  for  mortars  of 
other  size,  he  was  about 
to  give  up  in  despair,  thinking  it  would  be  impossible  to  use  the 
mortars.  But  a  happy  thought  struck  him;  among  the  troops 
in  the  camp  at  the  other  side  of  the  island  was  a  Yankee  regi- 
ment. All  Yankees  are  said  to  be  whittlers.  If  this  regiment 
was  turned  out,  the  men  might  whittle  fuse-plugs  enough  before 
morning  to  fire  a  thousand  rounds.  He  acted  at  once  on  the 
thought,  rode  to  camp,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  Seventh  Con- 
necticut Avere  ordered  out  to  whittle.  They  showed  themselves 
to  be  experts  with  the  jack-knife,  and  before  morning  had  made 
all  the  plugs  used  in  the  battery  in  the  two  days'  firing. 

On  the  8th  of  April  General  David  Hunter,  who  had  for- 
merly commanded  in  Kansas,  arrived  at  Tybee  Island  to  take 


Thirtkex-inch  Mc 


1862.] 


CAPTURE  OF  PULASKI. 


195 


the  place  of  General  Sherman  as  commander  of  the  Department 
of  the  South.  Two  days  afterward  he  demanded  the  surrender 
of  Fort  Pulaski,  hut  the  commander,  Colonel  Olmstead,  of 
Georgia,  sent  hack  word,  "I  am  here  to  defend  this  fort,  not 
to  surrender  it."  General  Gillmore  was  ordered  to  open  fire  on 
it  at  once.  The  bombardment  began  early  in  the  morning  and 
lasted  all  day  long,  and  it  was  kept  up  during  the  night  by 
several  heavy  guns.  On  the  next  morning  all  the  batteries 
opened  fire  again.  The  guns  of  the  fort  answered  with  vigor, 
and  there  was  a  continuous  roar  of  guns  and  mortars.  The 
wall  of  the  fort  soon  began  to  crumble,  and  before  noon  a  part 
of  it  was  in  ruins.  Pre- 
parations were  then 
made  to  send  over  troops 
in  boats  to  storm  it,  but 
at  two  o'clock  a  white 
flag  was  displayed  on  the 
walls  and  the  stars  and 
bars  were  hauled  down 
amid  loud  cheers  from 
all  the  batteries  on  Ty- 
bee  Island.  It  was  the 
11th  of  April,  just  a  year 
since  the  flag  of  the  Un- 
ion over  Sumter  had  been  fired  upon.  On  taking  possession  it 
was  found  that  ten  of  the  guns  in  the  fort  had  been  dismounted 
by  the  Union  artillery,  and  that  some  of  the  balls  from  the 
Parrott  guns  had  gone  entirely  through  the  Avails,  exposing  the 
powder  magazine  to  the  danger  of  explosion.  By  this  vic- 
tory forty-seven  guns  and  three  hundred  and  sixty  prisoners 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  government,  as  well  as  large  quantities 
of  scores  and  ammunition.  Only  two  persons  were  killed  in  the 
bombardment,  one  on  each  side. 

Other  successful  operations  were  carried  on  in  the  beginning 
of  this  year  (1862)  on  the  coasts  of  Georgia  and  Florida.  Com- 
modore Dapont,  who  had  sailed  from  Port  Royal  in  February 
with  a  fleet  of  fifty  war- vessels  and  several  transports,  bearing 
troops  under  the  command  of  General  II.  G.  "Wright,  found 
Fort  Clinch,  on  Amelia  Island,  deserted.  This  fort,  a  strong 
regular  work  mounted  with  heavy  guns,  commanded  the  waters 


Bomb-shell. 


196  ROANOKE.— NEW  BERNE.— PULASKI.  [1862. 

in  that  part  of  the  coast  of  Georgia.  Leaving  a  garrison  to  man 
it,  the  fleet  sailed  to  Fernandina,  Florida,  but  that  also  was 
found  abandoned.  Commodore  Dupont  wrote  to  Washington: 
"We  captured  Port  Royal,  but  Fernandina  and  Fort  Clinch 
have  been  given  to  us." 

While  the  fleet  was  approaching  Fernandina,  a  contraband 
was  picked  up  in  a  small  boat,  in  which  be  had  ventured  out  to 
sea  to  tell  that  the  place  had  been  deserted.  While  questioning 
him  one  of  the  officers  said : 

"You  ought  to  have  brought  up  some  newspapers  to  let  us 
know  what  is  going  on." 

"  I  thought  of  that,"  replied  the  contraband,  "and  fotched 
a  Charleston  paper  wid  me." 

He  took  a  paper  from  his  bosom  and  handed  it  out  with  the 
air  of  a  man  who  thinks  he  is  doing  an  important  service.  The 
officers  grasped  it  eagerly  and  gathered  in  a  knot  to  look  at  it, 
but  after  one  glance  everybody,  to  the  darky's  astonishment, 
burst  into  a  loud  fit  of  laughter.  Poor  Cuffy,  who  could  not 
read,  supposing  one  paper  to  be  as  good  as  another,  had  brought 
one  dated  1822. 

Commodore  Gordon  and  several  gunboats  were  sent  to  take 
possession  of  Brunswick,  Georgia,  tbe  terminus  of  the  railroad 
from  Pensacola.  It  was  found  to  be  fortified,  and  the  gunboats 
were  reconnoitring  to  find  a  position  to  shell  the  works,  when 
a  boat  was  observed,  rowing  off  from  the  shore.  On  coming 
near  it  was  seen  to  contain  two  contrabands,  who  rowed  for  the 
nearest  gunboat,  yelling  as  loud  as  they  could:  "Hold  on, 
Mars'  Yankee,  don't  shoot!  Soldiers  all  gone  to  Serwarner! 
Dase  leff  us  all  alone!"  Sure  enough,  the  forts  were  evacuated, 
and  Brunswick  was  taken  possession  of  without  a  fight. 

St.  Augustine  and  Jacksonville  Avere  soon  after  occupied, 
and,  leaving  soldiers  enough  to  hold  the  different  places  recov- 
ered, Commodore  Dupont  returned  with  his  fleet  to  Port  Eoyal 
at  the  end  of  March.  All  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Cape  Hatteras 
southward  was  now  in  possession  of  the  government,  excepting 
Charleston,  and  preparations  were  soon  made  to  attack  that 
place.  In  June  an  expedition  under  General  Hunter  landed  on 
James's  Island  and  attacked  the  little  town  of  Secessionville,  a 
few  miles  from  Charleston,  but  was  defeated  and  had  to  fall 
back,  and  this  ended  operations  against  Charleston  for  the  year. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
PEA  RIDGE.— ISLAND   NUMBER  TEN. 

Price  in  Springfield.— Retreats  before  Curtis.— Sugar  Creek.— Curtis  Falls  back  to 
Pea  Ridge.— Albert  Pike  and  his  Indians.— Earl  Van  Dorn.— Battle  of  Pea  Ridge.— 
Elkhorn  Tavern.— A  Night  of  Anxiety.— Death  of  Ben.  McCulloch.— The  Confeder- 
ates Retreat.— Indian  Atrocities.— Beauregard  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.— A  New 
Line  of  Defence.— Island  Number  Ten.— General  Pope  attacks  New  Madrid.— The 
Confederates  Abandon  the  Forts.— Commodore  Foote  and  his  Fleet.— Bombardment 
of  Island  Number  Ten.— Digging  a  Canal,.— Gunboats  Running  the  Batteries.— The 
Little  Gibraltar  Surrenders. 

WE  left  General  Price  in  Springfield,  Missouri,  in  the  fall 
of  1861,  while  the  Union  army  had  fallen  back  to  pre- 
pare for  another  campaign.  Price,  who  had  about  ten  thou- 
sand men,  had  built  comfortable  huts  for  them,  expecting 
to  remain  there  all  winter.  But  early  in  February,  1862,  Gen- 
eral Halleck,  determined  to  drive  him  from  his  position,  ordered 
the  army,  then  under  command  of  General  Samuel  P.  Curtis, 
to  advance.  The  Union  troops,  about  twelve  thousand  in 
number,  after  a  severe  march  over  muddy  roads  and  streams 
swollen  by  rains,  reached  Springfield  on  the  morning  of  Febru- 
ary 13,  but  found  the  enemy's  camp  deserted.  Price  had  left 
in  haste  the  night  before,  and  retreated  southward.  Curtis 
followed  him  across  the  border  of  Arkansas,  defeated  him  in  a 
small  fight  at  Sugar  Creek  (February  20),  and  finally  drove  him 
over  what  is  called  the  Boston  Mountains. 

Curtis,  fearing  that  he  had  gone  too  far  into  the  country 
of  the  enemy,  who  was  almost  as  strong  as  he,  thought  it  pru- 
dent to  fall  back  to  Sugar  Creek  Valley,  where  it  would  be  easy 
for  him  to  get  into  Missouri  again,  if  he  found  it  necessary  to 
retreat.  On  the  north  of  this  valley  is  a  spur  of  the  Ozark 
Mountains,  called  Pea  Ridge,  a  good  place  for  defence,  with 
plenty  of  water.  While  there  he  heard  that  the  Confederates, 
strongly  reinforced,  were  marching  to  attack  him.  Price  had 
been  joined  by  Generals  McCulloch  and  Mcintosh  with  a  large 
body  of  Confederate  troops,  and  by  General  Albert  Pike,  of 
Arkansas,  at  the  head  of  about  four  thousand  Indians,  mostly 
Choctaws,  Cherokees,  and  Chickasaws,  who  had  joined  the  Con- 
federate cause.      The  whole  force,   numbering  about   twenty 


198 


PEA  BID GE.— ISLAND  NUMBER  TEN. 


[1862. 


thousand  men,  was  under  the  command  of  Major-General  Earl 
Van  Dorn,  who  had  been  sent  in  January  to  take  charge  of  the 
Confederate  Trans-Mississippi  Department.  To  meet  this  large 
army  Curtis  had  only  about  eleven  thousand  men,  with  forty- 
nine  pieces  of  artillery. 

Van  Dorn,  who  was  marching  towards  the  Union  position 
on  the  Fayetteville  road,  shown  in  the  map,  encamped  on  the 
night  of  March  5  near  Cross  Hollows.     The  day  had  been  cold 

and  blustering,  and 
snow  enough  to 
cover  the  ground 
had  fallen.  The 
next  morning  he 
turned  to  the  north- 
west and  marched 
to  Benton  ville, near- 
ly cutting  off  Gene- 
ral Si  gel,  who  had 
encamped  near  that 
place  to  get  for- 
age for  his  horses 
more  easily.  But 
Sigel  succeeded  in 
fighting  his  way 
the  Con- 
cavalry, 
had  sur- 
him,  and 
the  main 
army  in  safety,  with 
a  loss  of  about 
eighty  men,  fifty  of 
whom  were  taken  prisoners.  On  the  next  night  Van  Dorn, 
who  knew  that  he  largely  outnumbered  Curtis,  marched  en- 
tirely around  the  Union  position  until  he  reached  its  rear  at  a 
place  called  Elkhorn  Tavern,  on  the  road  to  Keitsville.  By 
this  movement  he  hoped  to  capture  the  whole  Union  army,  for 
Curtis,  in  case  of  defeat,  was  thus  cut  off  from  his  supplies  and 
from  all  chance  of  retreating  into  Missouri.  Curtis,  who  had 
expected  Van  Dorn  to  attack  him  in  front,  had  fortified  that 


3  NATIONALS 
■  CONFEDERATES 
a.  M9CULLOCH    FELL 
b   M'SUMTOSH     ftLL 


through 

federate 

which 

rounded 

reached 


Battle-Field  of  Pea  Ridge. 


1863.]  BATTLE  OF  PEA  RIDGE.  199 

part  of  his  line  with  felled  trees  and  earthworks;  but  when  he 
found  out  that  the  enemy  was  marching  to  his  rear,  he  had  to 
give  up  his  strong  position  and  turn  so  as  to  fight  him  behind. 
The  map  shows  the  positions  of  the  two  armies  after  these 
changes  had  been  made.  In  Van  Dorn's  army  Price  and  his 
Missouriaus  were  on  the  Confederate  left,  near  Elkhorn  Tavern, 
while  McCulloch  and  Mcintosh's  Arkansas  troops  and  Pike's 
Indians  held  the  other  end  of  the  line.  In  the  Union  army 
General  Carr  was  on  the  right,  opposite  Price,  General  Jeffer- 
son C.  Davis  in  the  centre,  and  Generals  Sigel  and  Asbotli  on 
the  left,  near  Sugar  Creek.  The  Union  line,  though  it  looks 
short  on  the  map,  was  really  between  three  and  four  miles  long, 
while  the  Confederate  line  was  still  longer. 

Van  Dorn  began  the  attack  about  half-past  ten  o'clock  in 
the  morning  of  Friday,  March  7,  near  Elkhorn  Tavern.  The 
Confederates  pressed  on,  firing  shot  and  shell  and  supported 
by  heavy  masses  of  infantry.  General  Carr  defended  his  lines 
as  well  as  he  could,  but,  overpowered  by  superior  numbers,,  his 
cavalry  was  repulsed,  a  battery  was  lost,  and  he  was  gradually 
forced  back  more  than  half  a  mile.  About  the  same  time  the 
centre  was  attacked,  and  the  battle  soon  raged  there  with  great 
fury.  General  Davis  succeeded  in  holding  his  own,  his  troops 
standing  firmly  against  all  the  efforts  of  McCulloch  and  Mcin- 
tosh to  break  his  lines.  The  left  of  the  Union  line  had  not 
been  attacked,  and  about  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  General 
Curtis  ordered  General  Sigel  to  go  to  the  aid  of  Davis,  and  Gen- 
eral Asboth  to  reinforce  Carr.  Carr  had  then  been  seven  hours 
under  fire,  many  of  his  officers  had  been  killed  and  he  himself 
wounded,  and  the  remnant  of  his  men  were  nearly  tired  out. 
Asboth  at  once  opened  fire  and  continued  the  fight  until  night 
put  an  end  to  it. 

That  night  was  one  of  great  anxiety  to  both  parties,  and 
Confederates  and  Unionists  slept  on  their  arms  almost  within 
reach  of  each  other.  The  Confederates  had  been  successful 
against  Carr,  but  they  had  won  the  ground  at  a  great  loss,  and 
General  Price  had  been  seriously  wounded.  In  the  centre, 
however,  they  had  been  repulsed,  and  both  Generals  McCulloch 
and  Mcintosh  had  been  killed.  The  Arkansas  troops,  who  had 
had  great  faith  in  these  leaders,  felt  their  loss  very  seriously,  and 
being  unused  to  strict  discipline,  were  unwilling  to  obey  new 


200  PBA  RIDGE.— ISLAND  NUMBER  TEN.  [1863. 

commanders.  But  they  were  rallied  by  Van  Dorn,  and  joined 
to  Price's  troops  near  Elkhorn  Tavern.  The  Union  troops  still 
had  their  leaders,  but  they  had  met  with  serious  losses.  After 
a  long  day's  fight  they  had  not  been  able  to  hold  the  ground  on 
their  right,  and  there  was  a  prospect  that  the  enemy,  with  his 
superior  numbers,  would  be  able  to  complete  the  victory  on  the 
morrow.  Yet  every  man  felt  when  he  lay  down  to  sleep  on  the 
field  among  the  dead  and  the  dying  that  the  battle  must  be 
won,  for  if  the  army  was  defeated  there  was  no  escape  from 
captivity. 

When  day  broke  the  Confederate  attack  was  anxiously 
awaited,  but  all  was  quiet.  Curtis  at  last  opened  fire  against 
the  positions  near  Elkhorn  Tavern,  where  he  had  reason  to  be- 
lieve Van  Dorn  had  massed  his  troops  during  the  night.  The 
Confederate  artillery  replied,  and  the  battle  soon  became  gen- 
eral again.  The  attacks  of  the  Union  troops  were  repulsed 
several  times,  but  soon  Sigel  moved  around  on  the  left  and 
Asboth  on  the  right,  and  at  last  the  Confederates,  thus  threat- 
ened with  a  cross-fire,  fell  back  through  Cross  Timber  Hollow 
and  gave  up  the  battle.  Part  of  them  tied  south  through  Ben- 
tonville,  on  the  route  shown  in  the  map,  and  part,  under  Price, 
went  north  toward  Keitsville.  Pursuit  was  kept  up  but  a  short 
time,  and  the  wearied  Union  soldiers  encamped  on  the  field  of 
battle.  Their  loss  had  been  more  than  thirteen  hundred  in 
killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  and  that  of  the  Confederates 
much  greater,  though  there  was  never  any  correct  report  of  it. 
The  Indians  are  said  to  have  committed  many  atrocities  on  the 
battle-field,  tomakawking  and  scalping  the  Union  wounded 
without  mercy.  A  soldier  of  the  Ninth  Missouri,  seeing  his 
brother  scalped  by  a  savage,  vowed  vengeance  and  devoted  him- 
self all  day  long  to  shooting  Indians.  He  was  a  good  marks- 
man, and  at  night  returned  to  camp  with  nine  of  their  scalps 
as  trophies  of  his  day's  work. 

Van  Dorn  succeeded  in  carrying  off  nearly  all  his  artillery 
and  baggage,  so  that  Curtis  won  little  more  than  a  bare  victory. 
But  it  resulted  in  freeing  Missouri  for  some  time  to  come  from 
all  danger  of  Confederate  invasion,  and  enabled  both  parties  to 
send  their  armies  to  engage  in  the  struggle  about  to  take  place 
in  Tennessee.  The  battle  was  called  by  the  Unionists  Pea 
Eidge,  but  by  the  Confederates  Elkhorn. 


1862.] 


SIEGE  OF  NEW  MADRID. 


201 


We  must  now  return  once  more  to  the  Mississippi  Valley  to 
watch  the  movements  of  Generals  Grant  and  Buell  and  of  Com- 
modore Foote,  who  were  preparing  to  press  southward.  Shortly 
after  the  battle  of  Mill  Spring,  in  which  General  Zollicoffer  waa 
killed,  General  Beauregard  had  been  sent  to  aid  General  Johns- 
ton in  the  defence  of  the  Mississippi  department.  After  the 
fall  of  Donelson  he  saw  that  it  would  be  useless  to  try  to  form 
another  line  of  defence  north  of  Memphis,  so  he  ordered  Colum- 
bus to  be  evacuated  and  began  to  fortify  that  place,  in  hope 
of   stopping   the  ad- 

LJ-r 

MADRID; 


vance  of  the  Union 
forces.  In  order  to 
gain  time  to  finish 
the  works  at  Mem- 
phis, he  determined 
to  hold  Island  Num- 
ber Ten*  and  New 
Madrid  as  long  as 
poaiible,  although  he 
knew  that  the  posi- 
tions there  were  not 
very  strong.  Follow- 
ing the  course  of  the 
Mississippi,  this 
island  is  about  ten 
miles  above  New 
Madrid,  Missouri, 
which  is  seventy-nine 
miles  below  Cairo; 
but  on  account  of  a 
long  bend  in  the  river, 
shown  in  the  map, 
New   Madrid 


New  Madrid  and  Island  Number  Ten. 


the  island  is  really  further  south  than 
New  Madrid  is  at  the  most  northerly  part 
of  the  bend,  and  its'guns  were  so  placed  as  to  be  able  to  fire  at 
vessels  coming  either  way.  Besides  Fort  Thompson,  named 
after  Jeff.  Thompson,  it  was  defended  by  several  batteries  and 


*The  islands  in  the  Mississippi  River  from  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio 
southward  are  all  numbered.  Island  Number  Ten  therefore  is  the  tenth 
island  below  the  Ohio  River, 


202 


PEA  RIDGE.— ISLAND  NUMBER  TEN. 


[1862. 


by  six  gunboats,  mounting  heavy  guns,  which  had  come  up  the 
river  from  New  Orleans  and  were  under  the  command  of  Com- 
modore Hollins,  who  had  made  the  unsuccessful  attack  on  the 
Union  fleet  in  the  passes  of  the  Mississippi.  As  the  land 
around  New  Madrid  is  very  flat,  these  gunboats  could  fire  upon 
troops  approaching  the  place  by  land. 

On  the  same  day  when  the  flag  of  the  Union  was  hoisted 
over  the  deserted  works  of  the  Confederates  at  Columbus,  a 
Uuion  army  under  General  John  Pope,  who  had  been  command- 
ing in  eastern  Missouri,  appeared  before  New  Madrid.  Seeing 
that  he  could  do  but  little  with  his  field  artillery,  he  sent  to 
Cairo  for  heavy  guns;  and  while  waiting  for  these  he  built  a 
battery  at  Point  Pleasant,  about  ten  miles  below  New  Madrid, 
so  as  to  blockade  the  river  at  that  place  and  prevent  supplies 
from  being  sent  up  to  the  town.     Meanwhile  the  Confederates 


AiuvixG  a  Heavy  Cannon. 


strengthened  their  works  and  reinforced  the  garrison  with  men 
from  Island  Number  Ten,  while  their  fleet  of  gunboats  was 
increased  to  nine.  Four  heavy  guns  were  sent  from  Bird's 
Point  to  General  Pope  by  the  Cairo  and  Fulton  Eailway,  which 
brought  them  within  twenty  miles  of  where  they  were  wanted. 
They  were  then  dragged  on  large  cannon-trucks,  like  that  shown 
in  the  picture  (the  guns  being  slung  underneath  the  axle),  over 
very  muddy  roads,  to  the  place  prepared  for  them.  On  the 
night  of  March  12  a  thousand  spades  were  at  work  within  half  a 
mile  of  Fort  Thompson,  and  at  daylight  the  guns  were  in  posi- 
tion ready  for  action.  Pope  opened  a  cannonade  at  once  on  the 
gunboats  and  on  Fort  Thompson,  both  of  which  replied  vigor- 
ously. The  fight  raged  all  day  long  ;  several  of  the  gunboats 
were  disabled  and  the  Union  army  was  gradually  shutting  ki 


1863.] 


CAPTURE  OF  NEW  MADRID. 


203 


the  Confederates  on  the  land  side,  when  their  commander, 
General  McCown,  seeing  the  danger  of  capture,  left  the  place 
in  the  night,  during  a  heavy  timnder-storm,  and  removed  all 
his  troops  to  Island  Number  Ten. 

When  General  Pope  rode  over  the  works  and  saw  how  strong 
they  were,  he  could  scarcely  believe  that  he  had  won  so  easy  a 
victory.  On  taking  possession  it  was  found  that  the  enemy  had 
fled  in  such  haste  that  their  suppers  were  left  untasted  on  the 
tables,  and  candles  were  burning  in  many  of  the  tents.  The 
men  had  carried  off  only  what  they  wore,  leaving  behind  even 
their  knapsacks,  and  the  officers  their  private  baggage.  An 
immense  amount  of  property  was  found  in  the  works:  thirty- 
three  pieces  of  cannon, 
several  thousand  small- 
arms,  great  quantities  of 
ammunition  and  provis- 
ions, tents  enough  for  an 
army  of  ten  thousand  men, 
and  many  horses  and 
mules.  Two  men  were 
found  asleep  in  the  fort; 
when  awakened  they  rub- 
bed their  eyes  in  astonish- 
ment to  hear  that  all  their 
friends  had  left  and  that 
they  were  in  the  hands  of 
the  Yankees.  General  Pope  lost  fifty-one  men  in  killed  and 
wounded  during  the  day's  bombardment;  the  loss  of  the  Con- 
federates is  not  known,  but  is  thought  to  have  been  more  than 
a  hundred. 

About  the  time  of  the  capture  of  New  Madrid,  Commodore 
Foote  sailed  from  Cairo  with  a  fleet  of  seven  iron-clad  gun- 
boats, one  wooden  gunboat,  and  ten  mortar-boats,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  aiding  General  Pope  in  the  attack  on  Island  Number 
Ten.  He  came  in  sight  of  the  island  on  Saturday,  March  15, 
and  on  the  next  morning  opened  the  bombardment  with  the 
rifled  guns  of  the  Benton,  his  flag-ship.  The  mortar-boats, 
moored  at  convenient  places  along  the  shore,  soon  took  part  in 
the  firing,  and  rained  bombs  into  the  Confederate  works.  The 
form  of  one  of  these  boats  is  well  shown  in  the  enffravinsr.     It 


Mortar- Boat. 


204 


PEA  RIDGE.— ISLAND  NUMBER  TEN. 


[1862. 


was  simply  a  strong  fiat-boat,  with  a  thick  wooden  wall  built 
all  around  it,  about  eight  feet  high,  plated  with  iron  on  the 
outside,  and  made  sloping  so  that  shot  would  glance  off.  Each 
carried  a  single  mortar  in  the  middle,  the  ammunition  for  which 
was  kept  in  a  magazine  under  the  floor  below  the  water-mark, 
and  had  a  tent  for  shelter.  The  mortars  were  precisely  like 
those  used  on  land,  a  picture  of  one  of  which  is  given  on  page  194. 
Commodore  Eoote  kept  up  the  bombardment  for  many  days, 
without  doing  much  damage  to  the  Confederate  works.  But 
while  he  kept  the  enemy  busy,  General  Pope  had  been  engaged 
in  digging  a  canal  across  the  swampy  peninsula  formed  by  the 
bend  of  the  river,  so  that  vessels  could  go  through  to  New 


Island  Number  Ten. 

Madrid  without  having  to  pass  Island  Number  Ten.  This  was 
a  most  wonderful  feat,  for  the  peninsula  was  about  twelve  miles 
across,  moie  than  half  the  distance  being  covered  with  a  growth 
of  heavy  trees,  which  had  to  be  sawed  off  in  many  places  four 
feet  under  water.  A  large  number  of  men  were  employed, 
and  after  nineteen  days  of  hard  labor  a  channel  deep  enough 
for  light-draught  vessels  was  cut  through. 

In  the  night  of  April  1  a  few  men  from  the  gunboats,  aided 
by  some  of  Pope's  soldiers,  landed  on  the  Kentucky  shore,  op- 
posite Island  Number  Ten,  took  one  of  the  batteries  by  sur- 
prise and  spiked  its  six  guns — that  is,  drove  files  into  their 
touch-holes,  so  that  they  could  not  be  used  any  more.  A  few 
nights  afterward  the  Carondelet  ran  safely  by  all  the  batteries 
at  midnight,  during  a  heavy  thunder-storm.     She  might  have 


1862.]  TEE  LITTLE  GIBRALTAR  205 

slipped  by  unseen,  but  the  soot  in  her  smoke-stacks  caught  fire 
just  before  the  batteries  were  reached,  and  the  flames  leaping  up 
five  feet  above  the  tops  of  her  chimneys  showed  her  to  the  Con- 
federates, who  opened  all  their  guns  upon  her.  Her  comman- 
der, Captain  Walker,  then  ordered  all  steam  to  be  put  on,  and 
she  ran  by  amid  a  storm  of  shot  and  shell  without  being  hit 
once,  her  pilot  guiding  her  by  the  light  of  the  lightning  flashes. 
Two  nights  afterward  the  Pittsburgh,  another  gunboat,  per- 
formed the  same  feat,  with  the  same  good  fortune;  and  a  few 
days  later  the  Confederates  were  astonished  to  see  a  fleet  of 
transports  laden  with  troops  and  several  floating  batteries  join 
the  gunboats  at  New  Madrid.  These  had  passed  through  the 
canal,  which  the  Confederates  had  heard  about  but  had  not 
believed  in.  Their  astonishment  was  the  greater  because  they 
had  been  taught  that  their  position  on  Island  Number  Ten, 
which  they  had  fondly  called  the  "Little  Gibraltar,"  was  so 
strong  that  it  could  not  be  taken. 

The  gunboats  soon  silenced  the  one-gun  batteries  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river  below  New  Madrid,  when  the  Con- 
federates on  the  mainland,  satisfied  that  they  could  no  longer 
hold  their  position,  sunk  a  gunboat  and  some  transport  steamers 
in  the  river  between  Island  Number  Ten  and  New  Madrid,  and 
fled  in  confusion.  But  General  Pope,  who  had  sent  some 
troops  across  the  river  from  New  Madrid,  cut  them  off  below 
Tiptonville,  and  they  all  surrendered.  About  the  same  time 
the  few  men  on  Island  Number  Ten  surrendered  to  Commo- 
dore Foote.  Nearly  seven  thousand  prisoners,  including  three 
generals,  were  taken.  Among  the  other  fruits  of  the  victory 
were  more  than  one  hundred  heavy  siege-guns  and  mortars, 
twenty-four  pieces  of  field  artillery,  several  thousand  small- 
arms,  an  immense  quantity  of  ammunition  and  supplies,  and 
a  great  number  of  tents,  wagons,  horses,  and  mules.  Four 
steamboats  were  taken  afloat,  and  the  six  which  were  sunk  were 
soon  raised  and  repaired.  A  floating  battery,  carrying  sixteen 
guns,  drifted  down  the  river,  and  was  found  stranded  on  a 
sand-bank  a  little  way  above  Point  Pleasant,  where  it  was  soon 
taken  possession  of.  This  was  made  out  of  the  Pelican  Float- 
ing Dock  at  New  Orleans,  and  had  been  towed  all  the  way  up 
the  river  from  that  place. 

The  capture  of  Island  Number  Ten  was  one  of  the  most  im- 


206 


PEA  BlDGE.— ISLAND  NUMBEU  TEN. 


[1862. 


portant  successes  which  the  Union  forces  had  yet  won,  as  it 
opened  the  Mississippi  down  to  Fort  Pillow,  a  hundred  miles 
below  and  about  forty  above  Memphis.  While  it  carried  joy  to 
the  hearts  of  all  in  the  loyal  States,  it  caused  many  a  Confeder- 
ate to  despair  of  the  future,  for  it  seemed  almost  certain  that 
the  armored  gunboats  of  the  Union  would  soon  navigate  the 
whole  of  the  Mississippi  and  cut  off  the  western  from  the  east- 
ern part  of  the  Confederacy. 


Confederate  General. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
SHI  L  OH. —MEMPHIS. 

Beauregard  at  Corinth.— Grant  and  Halleck.— Pittsburg  Landing.— Albert  Sydney 
Johnston  Joins  Beauregard.— Marches  against  Grant.— Shiloh  Church.— An  Uncom- 
fortable Night.— We  Shall  Sleep  in  the  Enemy's  Camp.— The  Union  Army  Surprised. 
—Sherman  and  his  Men.— Skulkers.— Death  of  Johnston.— Grant  at  Bay.— Beaure- 
gard Keeps  his  Promise.— Buell  to  the  Rescue.— The  Gunboats  do  Good  Service.— A 
Dreadful  Retreat.— Boats  Enough.— Kentuckians  at  Shiloh.— Hold,  Bill!  That's 
Father!— Schpike  Dem  Guns!— Mitchell  in  Huntsville.— Halleck  Relieves  Grant  of 
Command.— Corinth.— Quaker  Guns.— Fort  Pillow.— Battle  of  Gunboats.— Memphis 
Taken. 

THE  Confederates  under  General  Albert  Sydney  Johnston 
had  fallen  back  to  Murfreesboro,  so  as  to  be  between  the 
Union  forces  advancing  into  Tennessee  and  the  important 
railway  centre  at  Chattanooga.  General  Beauregard  mean- 
while had  taken  his  position  at  Corinth,  in  the  northeast 
corner  of  Mississippi  and  about  sixteen  miles  from  Pittsburg 
Landing  on  the  Tennessee  River  in  Tennessee.  Corinth  was, 
like  Bowling  Green,  an  important  railway  centre,  it  being  a 
station  of  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  Railroad,  the  principal 
route  connecting  the  eastern  and  the  western  parts  of  the  Con- 
federacy, and  also  of  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  Railroad,  running 
directly  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Beauregard,  seeing  the  neces- 
sity of  defending  this  position,  had  gathered  there  General 
Polk's  forces  and  the  troops  of  General  Braxton  Bragg  from 
Pensacola.  He  also  fortified  the  high  bluffs  about  forty  miles 
above  Memphis  by  building  several  earthworks,  called  Forts  Pil- 
low, Harris,  Randolph,  and  Wright. 

After  the  fall  of  Fort  Donelson  General  Halleck  ordered 
General  Grant  to  push  on  up  the  Tennessee  River;  but  Grant, 
at  the  request  of  General  Buell,  went  to  Nashville  to  consult 
with  him.  Halleck  was  angry,  and  telegraphed  to  Grant  to 
give  up  the  command  to  General  C.  F.  Smith,  and  to  remain 
himself  at  Fort  Henry.  But  General  Smith  was  then  so  ill  that 
Grant  could  not  be  spared,  and  General  Smith's  death  soon  put 
him  in  command  again.  Smith  had  ordered  the  army  to  go  to 
Pittsburg  Landing,  because  it  was  a  good  point  from  which  to 
strike  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  Railroad,  and  about  thirty 


208 


SHIL  OH.  —MEMPHIS. 


[1862. 


thousand  men  were  soon  landed  there  from  transports.  Gen- 
eral Buell,  who  had  forty  thousand  men,  was  ordered  to  march 
from  Nashville  to  aid  this  movement. 

General  Sydney  Johnston,  seeing  that  General  Buell's  ad- 
vance freed  Chattanooga  from  danger,  hastened  with  his  army 
to  join  Beauregard  at  Corinth,  where  he  took  the  chief  com- 
mand, Beauregard  being  second  to  him.  The  whole  force  there 
amounted  then  to  about  forty-five  thousand  men,  while  about 
thirty  thousand  more  were  on  the  way  from  Arkansas.  The 
latter  were  the  troops  of  Van  Dorn  and  Price,  who  after  the 
retreat  of  General  Curtis  into  Missouri  had  marched  to  rein- 
force Beauregard,  with  the 
hope  of  aiding  him  to  win 
back  by  one  crushing  blow 
all  that  the  Confederates 
had  lost  in  the  West. 
Johnston,  who  knew 
through  his  spies  all  about 
Grant's  and  Buell's  move- 
ments, saw  at  once  that  his 
best  plan  was  to  try  to 
crush  Grant  before  Buell 
could  join  him.  The  ad- 
vance was  begun  on  the 
morning  of  April  3.  The 
distance  to  Pittsburg  Land- 
ing is  only  about  sixteen 
miles,  but  the  roads  were  in  a  very  bad  condition,  and  the  army 
did  not  arrive  until  the  night  of  the  4th.  Orders  were  given 
to  attack  at  dawn  of  the  5th,  but  soon  after  midnight  a  furious 
rain-storm  set  in  and  so  flooded  the  country  as  to  make  an  at- 
tack impossible. 

The  whole  country  around  Pittsburg  Landing  was  covered 
with  woods,  partly  underbrush  and  partly  large  trees.  The 
place  where  Grant's  army  lay  was  a  kind  of  plateau  on  the  bank 
of  the  river,  crossed  by  several  little  streams  and  ravines,  and 
bounded  on  the  sides  by  two  creeks,  called  Lick  Creek  and 
Snake  Creek.  About  the  middle  of  the  plateau,  two  miles 
from  the  landing,  was  Shiloh  Church,  built  out  of  rough  logs. 
Nothing  had  been  done  by  the  Union  troops  to  fortify  their 


W.  J.  Hardee. 


1862.]  BATTLE  OF  SHILOH.  209 

position,  for  no  one  thought  there  was  any  danger  of  an  attack 
from  the  Confederates;  indeed,  it  was  supposed  that  they  had 
not  troops  enough  at  Corinth. 

Johnston's  army  lay,  on  the  night  of  April  5,  on  the  wet 
ground  in  the  woods,  within  a  mile  of  the  careless  Union 
pickets,  whose  camp-fires  could  be  seen  through  the  trees  and 
whose  noise  could  be  plainly  heard.  The  few  fires  around  which 
the  drenched  Confederates  hovered  were  carefully  hidden  in 
holes  in  the  ground.  In  a  little  ravine,  sheltered  by  trees, 
Johnston  and  his  generals  gathered  around  a  small  fire  to  talk 
over  the  plan  of  battle  for  the  morrow.  Chief  among  these  was 
Beauregard,  already  famous  as  the  victor  of  Sumter  and  Man- 
assas. There  also  were  Hardee,  of  Georgia,  who  had  won  rank 
in  the  old  army  for  gallantry  in  the  Mexican  war,  and  who  had 
long  been  the  commandant  of  cadets  at  West  Point;  Braxton 
Bragg,  of  North  Carolina,  who  won  fame  at  Buena  Vista,  where 
he  was  the  hero  of  General  Taylor's  "a  little  more  grape,  Cap- 
tain Bragg;"  Polk,  of  Louisiana,  the  bishop  who  had  laid  down 
the  crozier  for  the  sword;  and  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky,  late 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  These  leaders  talked  long 
and  earnestly  over  the  situation,  telling  of  their  hopes  and  their 
fears,  but  at  last  it  was  decided  that  the  attack  must  be  made 
in  the  morning.  As  they  parted  about  ten  o'clock,  each  to  try 
to  get  a  little  rest  before  the  struggle,  Beauregard  pointed  to- 
ward the  river  and  said  with  a  smile,  "  Gentlemen,  to-morrow 
night  we  shall  sleep  in  the  enemy's  camp." 

Sunday  morning,  April  6,  opened  clear  and  warm.  The 
woods,  whose  buds  had  just  burst  into  green,  were  enlivened 
by  the  songs  of  birds  or  the  gentle  sough  of  the  wind;  but  few 
other  sounds  reached  the  ear,  for  the  Union  troops  were  sleep- 
ing in  fancied  safety,  and  the  Confederates  made  their  prepara- 
tions with  the  utmost  quietness.  The  attack  was  made  just  at 
the  gray  of  dawn.  The  Union  army,  taken  by  surprise,  was 
first  made  conscious  of  the  danger  when  the  frightened  pickets, 
driven  from  their  posts  in  the  woods  by  the  Confederate  ad- 
vance, came  running  into  camp  with  wild  cries  that  the  rebels 
were  upon  them.  Closely  following  charged  the  lines  of  the 
enemy,  rushing  through  the  woods,  and  firing  volleys  of  mus- 
ketry as  they  came,  while  shells  and  cannon-shot  began  to  crash 
into  the  camps.     The  Confederates  were  among  the  tents  al- 


210 


SniLOII.— MEMPHIS. 


[1862. 


most  as  soon  as  the  flying  pickets.  Most  of  the  men  were  en- 
gaged in  washing  and  cooking,  their  accoutrements  lying  round 
in  confusion  and  many  of  their  guns  unloaded.  Some  sprang 
for  their  weapons,  some  were  shot  down  as  they  were  running, 
coatless  and  hatless,  toward  the  river.  It  is  said  that  several 
whole  regiments  ran  without  firing  a  gun.* 

Some  of  the  shattered  regiments  of  General  W.  T.  Sherman's 
brigade,  whose  men  had  fallen  back  toward  the  river,  gained  at 
last  a  wooded  ridge,  where  they  succeeded  in  checking  the 


vii«!/  4- 


Pickets  on  Duty  in  the  Woods. 

enemy's  advance  long  enough  to  form  in  line.  Sherman  was 
in  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  encouraging  his  men  and  freely 
exposing  his  life,  though  he  escaped  with  only  a  bullet  through 
his  hand.  Through  his  energy  and  gallantry  the  whole  army 
was  saved  from  a  disgraceful  rout.  General  Grant  was  at 
Savannah,  a  few  miles  up  the  river,  on  the  other  side,  when  the 
fight  began,  having  a  talk  with  General  Buell,  who  had  arrived 
there  with  his  army  on  Saturday.  Hearing  the  firing  in  the 
morning,  Grant  hastened  down  in  a  steamboat  and  reached  the 

*  This  is  the  story  told  by  most  writers  of  the  time;  but  General  Sher- 
man says  in  his  Memoirs  that  there  was  no  surprise,  and  that  his  men  were 
in  line  of  battle  when  attacked. 


1862.] 


DEATH  OF  GENERAL  JOHNSTON. 


211 


battle-field  about  eight  o'clock.  The  battle  was  then  raging  at 
all  points  and  seemed  to  be  lost.  Sherman  still  held  the  centre 
around  Shiloh  Church,  but  soon  he  too  had  to  give  way  before 
the  fierce  attacks  of  the  Confederates.  The  other  divisions, 
under  McClernand,  Hurlbut,  Prentiss,  and  W.  H.  L.  Wallace, 
were  also  driven  back,  and  by  noon  the  enemy  had  won  the 
whole  camp,  and  the  Union  troops  were  crowded  into  a  small 
space  along  the  banks  of  the  Tennessee,  close  by  Pittsburg 
Landing.  Under  the  bluffs  huddled  four  or  five  thousand 
fugitives  from  the  battle-field,  trying  to  shelter  themselves  from 
the  storm  of  death  above. 

About  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  General  Sydney  Johns- 
ton, who  had  been  as  reck- 
less as  Sherman  in  exposing 
himself,  was  struck  by  a 
Minie  ball  in  the  leg.  Sup- 
posing it  to  be  only  a  flesh 
wound,  he  paid  no  attention 
to  it  and  rode  on.  But  the 
artery  had  been  cut,  and 
becoming  faint  with  loss  of 
blood,  he  said  to  one  of  his 
aids.  "I  fear  I  am  mortally 
wounded."  The  next  mo- 
ment he  reeled  and  fainted. 
He  was  carried  a  short  dis- 
tance away  into  a  ravine, 
where  he  died  in  a  few 
minutes.  His  troops,  kept  in  ignorance  of  the  sad  event,  still 
pressed  onward,  and  Beauregard  took  the  chief  command. 

Though  driven  to  the  very  brink  of  the  river,  Grant  had  not 
yet  gi  ven  up  all  hope.  "  We  can  hold  them  off  till  to-morrow," 
he  said.  "  Then  they  will  be  exhausted,  and  we'll  go  at  them 
with  fresh  troops."  There  was  a  deep  ravine  between  the  two 
armies,  which  the  Confederates  had  yet  to  cross.  Grant  hastily 
threw  up  some  small  earthworks  along  its  brow,  and  mounted 
there  some  heavy  siege-guns,  which  fortunately  had  been  landed 
for  use  against  Corinth,  and  when  the  enemy  made  a  final  at- 
tack they  were  received  with  a  hot  fire  from  these  and  from 
the  cannon  of  the  gunboats  Tyler  and  Lexington,  which  were 


Albert  Sydney  Johnston. 


212 


SHILOE.— MEMPHIS. 


[1862 


then  able  to  give  their  aid.  The  Confederates  made  brave 
efforts  to  charge  up  the  slippery  banks,  but  the  Union  troops 
fought  as  gallantly  as  they  did,  and  the  enemy  gave  up  the 
assault  at  nightfall.  Thus  the  first  day's  battle  ended  in  a.  de- 
cided advantage  for  the  Confederates,  and  Beauregard,  expect- 
ing to  win  easily  on  the  morrow,  telegraphed  to  Eichmond  that 
he  had  "gained  a  complete  victory."  He  was  not  far  wrong, 
for  he  had  taken  most  of  the  Union  artillery,  thirty  flags,  and 
nearly  three  thousand  prisoners,  including  General  Prentiss. 
He  kept  his  promise,  too,  of  sleeping  in  the  Union  camp,  for 
that  night  he  occupied  General  Sherman's  headquarters  in  Shi- 
loh  Church. 

But  a  great  change  took  place  during  the  night.     The  gun- 
boats continued  to  throw  shells,  and  the  Confederates  were  so 


MCLE-LlTTERS    FOR  CARRYING  WOTJSDED. 

annoyed  by  them  that  they  had  to  fall  back  from  place  to  place, 
and  thus  lost  more  than  half  the  ground  they  had  gained.  Gen- 
eral Lewis  "Wallace,  who  had  not  been  able  to  take  part  in  the 
fight,  joined  Grant  with  his  division  of  five  thousand  men,  and 
more  than  twenty  thousand  of  Buell's  army  had  succeeded  in 
crossing  the  river;  so  that  when  morning  broke  the  Union  lines 
were  again  ready  for  the  enemy,  with  fifty  thousand  men  in 
position,  while  Beauregard  had  less  than  thirty  thousand.  The 
day  opened  cloudy  and  with  a  drizzling  ram.  General  Wallace 
began  the  attack,  followed  by  Sherman,  and  the  Confederates 
were  soon  forced  back  little  by  little  from  the  positions  they  had 
held  during  the  night.  Beauregard  rode  backward  and  forward 
among  his  men,  cheering  them  on  by  his  words  and  example. 
They  responded  bravely,  but  they  were  too  fiercely  pressed  by 


1862.] 


RETREAT  FROM  8IIIL0H. 


213 


the  fresh  Union  troops,  who  rushed  forward  with  cheers  as  the 
enemy  gradually  gave  way.  At  last  Beauregard  ordered  a  re- 
treat. He  expected  to  be  pursued  by  Grant,  for  he  said  to 
Breckinridge,  who  commanded  the  rear,  "This  retreat  must 
not  be  a  rout.  You  must  hold  the  enemy  back,  if  it  requires 
the  loss  of  your  last  man."  The  army  fell  back  toward  Corinth 
in  a  cold  drizzling  rain  which  soon  turned  to  hail.  The 
wounded,  some  carried  in  wagons,  some  on  mules  or  horses,  and 
some  on  hand-litters,  suffered  terribly.  Many  died,  more  than 
three  hundred  being  dropped  by  the  wayside.  Beauregard  re- 
ported his  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing  at  10,699; 
Grant  reported  his  own  at  13,573.  The  day  after  the  battle 
Beauregard  wrote  to  Grant 
asking  permission  to  send 
men  to  bury  his  dead,  but 
the  dead  had  already  been 
buried,  and  the  dead  horses 
on  the  field  had  been 
burned,  for  fear  that  if  left 
they  might  cause  sickness 
among  the  troops. 

General  Buell  thought 
that  Grant  had  done  wrong 
in  placing  his  army  on  the 
same  side  of  the  river  with 
the  enemy  when  they  were 
so  near,  and  asked,  "  What  would  you  have  done  had  you  been 
pressed  once  more  on  Sunday  evening?" 

"Put  my  troops  across  the  river,"  said  Grant. 

"But  you  had  not  boats  enough,"  answered  Buell. 

"Plenty,"  replied  Grant,  "to take  over  all  that  wouhi  have 
been  left  when  we  had  done  fighting." 

The  probability  is  that  Beauregard  would  have  made  another 
attack  Sunday  night  if  he  had  not  believed  that  the  river  bank 
was  fortified.  When  General  Prentiss  was  taken  prisoner, 
Beauregard  asked  him  if  the  Nationals  had  any  fortifications  at 
the  river. 

"  You  must  think  us  poor  soldiers,  General,"  replied  Pren- 
tiss, "if  you  suppose  we  would  have  neglected  so  plain  a  duty." 

Notwithstanding  this  answer,  the  Union  troops  had  not 


Hand-Litter  for  Carrying  Wounded. 


214  SHILOH.— MEMPHIS.  [1863. 

even  an  earthwork  to  protect  their  position  until  some  slight 
ones  were  thrown  up  Sunday  night,  and  if  Beauregard  had 
pressed  on  all  might  have  been  captured  before  Buell  could  have 
come  to  their  aid. 

In  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  or  Pittsburg  Landing,  as  it  is 
sometimes  called,  Kentucky  regiments  fought  in  both  armies. 
During  the  hottest  of  the  strife  it  happened  that  two  of  these 
regiments  met  and  fought  each  other  with  the  fury  and  hatred 
which  usually  marks  civil  warfare.  One  of  the  Union  soldiers 
happened  to  wound  and  take  prisoner  his  own  brother,  and  after 
handing  him  to  the  rear  began  firing  at  a  man  near  a  tree. 
"Hold,  Bill,"  shouted  his  captured  brother,  "  don't  shoot  there 
any  more!     That's  father!" 

In  another  case  a  Union  volunteer  from  Louisville  was  serv- 
ing in  the  hospital  near  the  battle-field  when  his  brother,  who 
had  been  fighting  on  the  other  side,  was  brought  in  mortally 
wounded.  The  poor  Confederate  was  tenderly  cared  for  and 
died  in  his  brother's  arms. 

During  the  heaviest  of  the  fighting,  batteries  of  artillery 
were  taken  and  retaken  by  both  sides.  Once  the  Union  troops 
captured  a  Confederate  battery,  but  the  enemy  came  on  in  force 
again  and  after  the  fight  had  raged  around  the  guns  for  a  half- 
hour  the  captors  were  driven  back,  leaving  the  cannons  in  pos- 
session of  the  enemy;  but  before  abandoning  them  the  Union 
soldiers  filled  the  touch-holes  of  the  guns  with  mud,  and  from 
that  time  to  the  close  of  the  fight  the  enemy  did  not  succeed  in 
firing  another  shot  from  them. 

Another  story  is  told  of  a  German  officer  who  rode  up  to 
General  Grant  and  said,  "Sheneral,  I  am  sorry  to  say  dot  our 
battery  vas  took." 

"  Of  course  you  spiked  the  guns,  sir,"  said  Grant. 

"  Schpike  dem  guns!  Dem  new  guns!  Oh  no;  we  would 
not  schpoil  dem  guns." 

"Well,  sir,  what  did  you  do?"  asked  Grant,  sharply. 

"Vy,  we  took  dem  back  again!" 

While  General  Buell  was  moving  to  reinforce  Grant,  General 
0.  M.  Mitchell,  in  command  of  a  division  of  Buell's  army,  had 
been  sent  southward  from  Nashville  to  destroy  the  railroad  east 
of  Corinth.  He  marched  very  rapidly,  passed  through  Mur- 
freesboro  and  Shelbyville,  and  entered  Huntsville,  Alabama,  at 


1862.]  TAKING  OF  CORINTH.  215 

daylight  of  April  11,  taking  the  people  by  surprise.  The  clat- 
tering noise  of  the  cavalry  roused  everybody  from  sleep.  The 
cry  arose,  "  The  Yankees  have  come!"  Men  leaped  from  their 
beds  and  rushed  into  the  streets  in  their  night-clothes,  women 
fainted,  children  screamed,  the  negroes  chuckled  and  laughed, 
and  for  a  time  all  was  hubbub  and  confusion.  General  Mitchell 
at  once  took  possession  of  the  telegraph  office  and  railway 
station,  where  he  captured  seventeen  locomotives  and  more  than 
a  hundred  passenger  cars,  and  sent  parties  out  both  east  and  west 
to  destroy  bridges.  Stephenson,  Decatur,  and  Tuscumbia  were 
taken,  thus  cutting  off  Beauregard  from  the  east.  For  these 
important  services,  in  which  not  a  man  was  lost,  Mitchell  was 
made  a  major-general  of  volunteers. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  all  the  movements  of  these 
ai'mies  were  directed  by  Major-General  Halleck,  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  department,  who  had  his  headquarters  in  St. 
Louis.  As  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  battle  at  Pittsburg  Landing 
he  went  there  and  took  command  in  person  of  both  Grant's  and 
BuelPs  armies.  General  Pope  soon  joined  him  with  twenty-five 
thousand  men  and  a  few  regiments  came  from  Curtis's  army,  so 
that  Halleck  had  under  him  in  the  beginning  of  May  more  than 
one  hundred  thousand  men.  He  soon  showed  that  he  was 
prejudiced  against  General  Grant,  for  he  issued  an  order  re- 
arranging the  army,  giving  General  Buell  command  of  the  cen- 
tre, General  Pope  of  the  left,  and  General  Thomas  of  the  right, 
while  a  fourth  division,  called  the  reserve,  was  given  to  General 
McClernand.  General  Grant  was  given  the  honorary  position 
of  "second  in  command"  of  the  whole  army,  which  gave  him 
no  authority  at  all.  Though  this  was  really  an  insult  to  the 
successful  commander  of  the  army,  Grant  kept  his  usual  silence 
and  attended  to  what  was  required  of  him  without  complaint. 

The  Grand  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  as  it  was  called,  began 
to  move  toward  Corinth  on  the  3d  of  May,  but  so  cautious  was 
its  advance  that  it  did  not  get  into  position  before  the  Confed- 
erate works  until  the  28th.  Beauregard  had  been  reinforced  by 
Generals  Price  and  Van  Dorn  and  by  troops  from  the  South, 
and  had  then  under  him  about  sixty-five  thousand  men;  but 
seeing  that  he  had  no  hope  of  opposing  successfully  so  great  a 
force,  he  blew  up  his  magazines,  destroyed  everything  of  value, 
and  retreated  southward.     Halleck  entered  Corinth  the  next 


216 


SH1L  OH.  —MEMPHIS. 


[1861 


day,  May  30,  and  was  surprised  to  find  that  the  defences  were 
mostly  shams,  mounted  with  Quaker  guns  like  those  found  at 
Munson's  Hill.  If  he  had  not  been  so  tardy  in  his  advance 
from  Pittsburg  Landing  he  might  have  struck  Beauregard  a 
heavy  blow.  Indeed,  military  writers  think  that  if  Halleck 
had  stayed  a  week  longer  in  St.  Louis,  Grant  would  have 
crushed  Beauregard's  army  and  captured  all  his  supplies. 

After  the  fall  of  Island  Number  Ten  Commodore  Foote  and 
his  gunboats  and  General  Pope  with  his  army  on  transports 
moved  down  the  Mississippi  to  attack  Fort  Pillow,  a  very  strong 
work  built  for  the  defence  of  the  city  of  Memphis.  Its  walls 
were  mounted  with  forty  heavy  guns,  and  it  was  defended  by 

six  thousand  men 
and  by  a  fleet  of  ar- 
mored gunboats, 
some  of  which  were 
rams — that  is,  they 
were  fitted  in  front 
with  strong  beaks, 
plated  with  iron,  to 
be  used  in  ramming 
in  the  sides  of  an 
enemy's  vessel. 
General  Pope  was 
soon  called  away  by 
General  Halleck,  who  was  getting  ready  to  march  on  Corinth, 
and  Commodore  Foote  was  left  to  carry  on  the  siege  alone.  He 
kept  up  a  bombardment  until  May  9,  when  the  painfullness  of 
his  foot,  wounded  at  Donelson,  obliged  him  to  give  up  duty  and 
he  was  succeeded  in  the  command  by  Commodore  C.  II.  Davis. 
On  the  next  day  after  Foote  left  the  Confederate  gunboats 
and  rams  attacked  the  Union  fleet.  The  Cincinnati  had  her 
side  stove  in  by  the  ram  McRea,  and  the  Mound  City  was  badly 
injured  by  the  ram  Sumter.  The  Union  gunboat  Benton  at 
last  sent  a  shell  through  the  boiler  of  the  McRea,  many  of  the 
ere av  of  which  were  scalded  by  the  escaping  steam.  The  ram 
floated  down  with  the  current  and  succeeded  in  getting  away, 
the  Cincinnati  and  the  Mound  City  being  too  much  injured  to 
chase  her,  and  the  Cincinnati  soon  after  sunk.  The  remainder 
of  the  Confederate  boats  then  left  and  the  battle  ended. 


Stern-wheel  Ram. 


1862.] 


CAPTURE  OF  MEMPHIS. 


217 


During  the  next  three  weeks  a  slow  bombardment  of  the 
fort  was  kept  up  by  the  Union  mortar-boats,  and  some  rams, 
under  command  of  Colonel  Charles  Ellet,  Jr.,  were  added  to  the 
fleet;  but  when  Commodore  Davis  was  ready  for  another  fight 
no  Confederate  gunboats  were  to  be  seen.  Fort  Pillow,  too,  was 
evacuated  on  the  night  of  June  4,  and  the  next  morning  the 
stars  and  stripes  were  hoisted  over  its  walls.  The  Union  fleet 
then  steamed  down  to  Memphis,  where  the  Confederate  fleet, 
consisting  of  eight  rams  and  gunboats,  was  found  ready  for 
action.  The  battle  began  at  half-past  five  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing (June  6)  and  lasted  only  an  hour  and  a  half,  ending  in  the 
destruction  or  capture  of  seven  of  the  eight  Confederate  vessels, 
only  one,  the  Van  Dorn,  escaping.  Of  the  others,  the  General 
Lovell,  the  General  Beauregard,  and  the  General  Price  were 
sunk,  the  Jeff  Thompson  was  blown  up,  the  Little  Rebel  was 
disabled  and  run  ashore,  and  the  General  Bragg  and  the  Sumter 
were  taken  afloat.  The  flag  of  the  Union  was  hoisted  on  the 
Bragg  and  the  Sumter,  and  they  afterward  came  to  anchor  with 
the  rest  of  the  fleet  in  front  of  Memphis.  The  city  was  taken 
possession  of,  and  shortly  afterward  General  Lewis  Wallace  was 
sent  with  his  division  to  take  command  of  it. 


Windlass. 


CHAPTEE  XVIII. 

NEW  ORLEANS. 

Expedition  against  New  Orleans.— Ship  Island.— Farragut  and  his  Fleet.— Defences  of 
the  City.— Mortar  Vessels  Disguised.— Fire-Rafts.— A  Furious  Bombardment.— Far- 
ragut Passes  the  Forts.— The  Varuna  Sunk.— A  Brave  Boy.— An  Awful  Sight.— The 
Hartford  in  Flames.— Sinking  of  the  Gunboats.— The  Manassas  Explodes.— New 
Orleans  Amazed.— Ships  and  Cotton  Burned.— General  Loyell.— Mumford  and  the 
Flag.— The  Forts  Surrender  to  Porter.— A  Fat  Man  Grows  Lean.— Butler  in  New 
Orleans.— Hanging  of  Mumford.— Butler's  Accusers.— Farragut  Passes  the  Vicks- 
burg  Batteries.— Battle  at  Baton  Rouge.— The  Arkansas  Destroyed.— Capture  op 
Galveston. 

DUKING  the  month  of  April,  18G2,  which  witnessed  the 
hattle  of  Shiloh  and  the  fall  of  Island  Number  Ten,  Fort 
Pulaski,  and  Fort  Macon,  the  Confederates  met  with  a  far 
heavier  blow  in  the  loss  of  New  Orleans.  As  early  as  Septem- 
ber, 1861,  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler  had  been  sent  to  New 
England  to  raise  men  for  an  expedition  the  object  of  which  was 
to  be  kept  secret.  He  was  successful,  and  in  December  several 
thousand  men,  under  command  of  General  J.  W.  Phelps,  were 
landed  on  Ship  Island,  a  small  sandy  island  in  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  off  the  coast  of  Mississippi.  Before  the  war  the  United 
States  Government  had  an  unfinished  fort  on  this  island,  which 
the  Confederates  had  made  quite  strong  and  named  Fort 
Twiggs;  but  they  abandoned  it  in  the  autumn  of  1801,  and  it 
was  soon  after  taken  possession  of  by  some  Union  troops  and 
renamed  Fort  Massachusetts.  General  Phelps  and  his  troops 
occupied  the  fort  and  remained  on  the  island  all  winter. 

On  the  2d  of  February,  1802,  a  large  fleet,  under  command 
of  Commodore  David  G.  Farragut,  sailed  from  Hampton  Eoads 
for  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  A  fortnight  afterward  this  fleet  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  large  number  of  transports,  carrying  fifteen  thou- 
sand troops  under  General  Butler,  who  had  been  appointed 
commander  of  the  Department  of  the  Gulf.  The  place  of 
meeting  was  Ship  Island,  where  the  troops  were  landed,  after  a 
stormy  passage  down  the  coast,  toward  the  end  of  March.  Com- 
modore Farragut,  who  had  been  put  in  command  of  the  West- 
ern Gulf  Squadron,  was  joined  by  Commodore  David  D.  Porter, 
with  a  fleet  of  twenty-one  mortar-schooners,  each  of  which  car- 


1862.] 


FARRAGUT  AND  HIS  FLEET. 


219 


ried  a  15-inch  mortar — that  is,  a  mortar  large  enough  to  fire  a 
15-inch  bomb-shell — and  two  32-ponnder  rifled  cannons. 

The  approaches  to  New  Orleans  had  been  very  strongly  for- 
tified by  the  Confederates.  The  city,  which  is  on  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Mississippi,  is  about  a  hundred  miles  above  the 
mouths  of  the  river.  Seventy  miles  below,  or  about  thirty  miles 
above  the  passes,  at  a  bend  in  the  river,  are  Forts  Jackson  and 
St.  Philip,  each  mounted  with  heavy  guns.  Prom  Port  Jack- 
son a  raft  made  of  the  hulls  of  vessels  and  of  cypress  logs,  fas- 
tened together  by  six  chains,  was  stretched  across  to  the  oppo- 
site shore  and  defended  by  a  battery  at  each  end.  Under  the 
guns  of  the  fort  lay  a  fleet  of  thirteen  gunboats,  an  iron-clad 
floating  battery  called  the  Louisiana,  and  the  ram  Manassas. 

Fire-rafts,  to  be  sent  down 
to  burn  the  vessels  of  an 
enemy's  fleet,  had  also  been 
made  ready.  Above  the 
forts  were  many  batteries 
along  the  river's  banks,  and 
in  and  around  the  city  was 
a  force  of  ten  thousand  men, 
under  command  of  General 
Mansfield  Lovell,  a  former 
United  States  officer,  dis- 
tinguished in  the  Mexican 
War. 

Commodore  Farragut's 
fleet,  besides  the  mortar- 
schooners,  consisted  of  seven 
large  steam  sloops-of-war,  sixteen  gunboats,  and  several  other 
vessels.  The  flag-ship  was  the  Hartford,  a  large  and  powerful 
steamer.  By  the  17th  of  April  the  whole  fleet  was  in  the  river. 
Commodore  Porter  disguised  his  mortar-vessels  by  daubing  their 
hulls  with  mud  and  covering  their  masts  and  rigging  with  green 
boughs,  so  that  they  could  not  be  told  from  the  forest-trees, 
and  moored  them  along  the  river  banks,  the  nearest  ones  being 
a  little  more  than  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Fort  Jackson.  The 
bombardment  opened  on  the  morning  of  April  18,  and  was  kept 
up  for  six  days  and  nights,  during  which  six  thousand  shells, 
each  weighing  nearly  three  hundred  pounds,  were  thrown.     The 


David  G.  Farragut. 


220 


NEW  ORLEANS. 


[1862. 


forts  answered  vigorously  day  after  day,  and  during  the  night 
great  fire-rafts  came  blazing  down  the  river,  the  Confederates 
hoping  that  some  of  the  vessels  of  the  fleet,  which  lay  below  the 
mortar-boats,  might  be  destroyed  by  them;  but  they  were  easily 
caught  by  small  boats  sent  out  from  the  ships,  and  towed  to 
v  the  banks,  where  they  burned  harmlessly.  At  last  Farragut, 
thinking  that  there  was  but  little  chance  of  taking  the  forts  in. 
this  way,  made  up  his  mind  to  run  by  them.  The  river  was 
very  high,  and  the  water  was  rising  all  the  time.  Part  of  the 
raft  had  been  carried  away  by  the  flood,  but  enough  still  re- 
mained to  keep  vessels  from  passing  up  when  under  fire  from 
the  forts.     On  a  dark  and  windy  night  several  of  the  gunboats 

ran  up  to  the  raft,  and 
succeeded  in  cutting  the 
chains,  so  that  one  end 
swung  round,  leaving  a 
clear  opening  through  it. 
Commodore  Farragut 
divided  his  fleet  into  three 
parts,  one  of  which,  led 
by  Captain  Theodoras 
Bailey,  in  the  Cayuga, 
was  to  fight  Fort  St. 
Philip;  the  second,  led  by 
himself,  in  the  Hartford, 
was  to  fight  Fort  Jackson; 
and  the  third,  under  Cap- 

David  D.  Porter.  .    .         _   „  I 

tain  Bell,  was  to  pass 
on  and  attack  the  Confederate  fleet.  Every  plan  that  could  be 
thought  of  for  saving  the  vessels  from  the  enemy's  shot  was 
tried.  Bags  of  sand  were  packed  around  the  boilers,  and  chain- 
cables  were  hung  along  the  sides  of  each  vessel  to  protect  the 
engines,  while  the  insides  of  the  bulwarks  were  packed  with 
hammocks  and  other  things  to  keep  splinters  from  flvingincase 
they  should  be  struck  by  shot.  Commodore  Farragut  had  in- 
tended to  wait  for  a  dark  night  before  making  the  attempt,  but 
the  Confederates  seemed  to  know  what  he  was  going  to  do,  for 
they  kept  the  river  lighted  by  blazing  rafts  and  by  bonfires  on 
shore.  The  signal  for  the  fleet  to  move  was  given  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning  of  April  23,  and  the  Cayuga  weighed  anchor 


1862.] 


PASSING   THE  FORTS. 


221 


and  led  on  the  column.  At  the  same  time  the  mortar -boats 
rained  shells  into  Fort  Jackson,  to  keep  the  men  from  the 
guns,  and  several  steamers  also  kept  up  a  heavy  fire  on  the  bat- 
tery near  the  end  of  the  raft.  The  vessels  were  discovered  at 
the  raft,  and  the  forts  soon  opened  fire  on  them;  but  the  Cayuga 
passed  Fort  Jackson,  and  did  not  answer  until  opposite  Fort 
St.  Philip,  when  she  opened  fire  with  grape  and  canister,  to 
drive  the  Confederate  cannoneers  from  their  guns.  She  was 
soon  past  the  fort  and  amongst  a  fleet  of  gunboats,  which  at- 
tacked her  on  all  sides.  Among  these  was  the  ram  Manassas 
and  the  iron-clad  battery  Louisiana,  which  was  armed  with 
twenty  heavy  guns.  She  kept  them  off  by  skilful  steering,  and 
crippled  or  destroyed  three  of  them.  The  Cayuga  was  followed 
by  the  Varuna,  the  Oneida, 
the  Pensacola,  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  the  Portsmouth, 
the  last,  a  sailing  vessel, 
being  in  tow.  The  Oneida 
passed  safely, nearly  cutting 
in  two  one  of  the  enemy's 
gunboats,  but  the  Varuna, 
after  disabling  and  running 
ashore  several  of  her  oppo- 
nents, wras  struck  by  an 
iron-clad  ram,  and  had  her 
side  stove  in.  Finding  the 
ship  sinking,  her  com- 
mander, Charles  Boggs,  ran  her  into  the  bank,  where  she  went  to 
the  bottom  in  fifteen  minutes,  leaving  part  of  her  bow  above 
water.  The  guns  were  kept  at  work  to  the  last  moment,  no 
man  leaving  his  post  until  driven  away  by  the  water.  Among 
the  bravest  and  coolest  of  the  crew  was  Oscar  Peck,  a  lad  thir- 
teen years  old,  who  was  acting  as  powder-boy  to  one  of  the  rifled 
guns.  During  the  hottest  of  the  fire  he  was  busily  engaged  in  - 
passing  ammunition,  narrowly  escaping  death  when  one  of  the 
Confederate  gunboats  poured  a  broadside  into  the  Varuna.  Com- 
mander Boggs  seeing  him,  all  begrimed  with  powder,  running 
along  the  deck,  asked  him  where  he  was  going  in  such  a  hurry. 
"  To  get  a  passing-box,  sir;  the  other  one  was  smashed  by  a 
ball!" 


Mortar  Vessels  Disguised. 


222 


NEW  ORLEANS. 


[1862. 


When  the  Varuna  went  down  the  boy  was  missed,  and  it  was 
feared  that  he  was  among  the  victims  of  the  battle.  But  pres- 
ently he  was  seen  swimming  toward  the  wreck.  He  had  stood 
by  his  gun  until  swept  away  by  the  swash  of  the  water  as  the 
vessel  sank.  Clambering  up  to  where  Commander  Boggs  stood, 
he  raised  his  hand  to  his  forehead  with  the  usual  salute,  and 
said,  "All  right,  sir.     I  report  myself  on  board!" 

Commodore  Farragut  had  followed  with  the  Hartford  and 
the  other  ships  closely  after  Captain  Bailey,  and  running  within 
half  a  mile  of  Fort  Jackson  poured  in  a  heavy  fire.  Farragut 
described  the  scene  as  one  of  the  most  awful  sights  he  ever  wit- 
nessed.    "  The  smoke  was  so  dense  that  it  was  only  now  and 

then  you  could  see  any- 
thing but  the  flash  of  the 
cannon  and  the  fire  ships 
or  rafts,  one  of  which  was 
pushed  down  upon  us  (the 
Hartford)    by    the    ram 
Manassas,  and  in  my  ef- 
fort to  avoid  it  ran  the 
ship  on  shore,  and   then 
the   fire-raft  was  pushed 
alongside,  and   in  a  mo- 
ment   the   ship  was   one 
blaze  all    along  the  port 
side,  half-way  up  to  the 
main   and    mizzen    tops. 
But,  thanks  to  the  good 
organization  of  the  fire  department  by  Lieutenant  Thornton, 
the  flames  were  extinguished,  and   at  the  same  time  we  backed 
off  and  got  clear  of  the  raft.     But  all  this  time  we  were  pour- 
ing the  shells  into  the  forts,  and  they  into  us,  and  every  now 
and  then  a  rebel  steamer  would  get  under  our  fire  and  receive 
our  salutation  of  a  broadside. 

"At  length  the  fire  slackened,  the  smoke  cleared  off,  and  we 
saw  to  our  surprise  that  we  were  above  the  Forts,  and  here  and 
there  a  rebel  gunboat  on  fire.  As  we  came  up  with  them,  try- 
ing to  make  their  escape,  they  were  fired  into  and  riddled,  so 
that  they  ran  them  on  shore;  and  all  who  could,  made  their 
escape  to  the  shore." 


f 


Theodorus  Bailey. 


1862.] 


THE  RAM  MANASSAS. 


223 


The  Eichmond  followed  the  flag-ship,  hut  the  Brooklyn 
got  entangled  with  part  of  the  raft,  which  delayed  her  awhile. 
As  soon  as  she  got  clear  and  had  begun  to  move  up  stream,  she 
was  attacked  by  the  Manassas,  which  ran  at  her,  firing  her  for- 
ward gun  into  her  when  only  a  few  feet  away,  and  then  butted 
her  heavily  with  her  ram.  Fortunately  the  shot  was  stopped 
by  the  sand-bags  around  the  Brooklyn's  boiler,  and  the  ram 
glanced  harmlessly  off  from  the  chain  cables  hung  along  the 
ship's  sides.  The  Brooklyn  next  set  on  fire  a  Confederate 
steamer  with  shells,  and  pouring  a  broadside  into  Fort  St.  Philip 
as  it  passed,  nearly  silenced  its  guns.     Of  the  other  vessels,  the 


The  Hartford. 

Itasca  was  disabled  by  the  fire  from  the  forts,  and  the  Kennebec 
and  Winona  were  driven  back. 

After  the  Manassas  left  the  Brooklyn,  she  had  an  exciting 
fight  with  the  Mississippi,  which  ended  in  her  being  driven 
ashore,  where  her  crew  set  her  on  fire  and  escaped.  She  was 
boarded  and  found  to  be  riddled  with  shot,  and  was  left  to  drift 
down  the  river.  Commodore  Porter,  who  was  below  with  the 
mortar-boats,  tried  to  save  her,  but  just  as  she  had  been  hauled 
in  to  the  bank  she  exploded  faintly,  and  with  a  puff  of  flame 
and  smoke  gave  a  plunge,  like  some  huge  sea  monster,  and 
went  down  hissing  beneath  the  muddy  waters  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  Manassas  was  the  last  of  eleven  rams  and  gunboats  destroyed 
by  the  fleet  in  passing. 


224 


NEW  ORLEANS. 


[1862. 


The  people  of  New  Orleans,  trusting  in  what  the  Confeder- 
ate commanders  had  told  them — that  the  city  could  not  be 
taken — had  felt  no  alarm  at  the  bombardment  of  the  forts;  and 
thousands  had  gone  down  the  river  to  view  from  the  levee  the 
beautiful  sight  of  the  bombs  flying  through  the  air  in  graceful 
curves  and  then  exploding  in  the  soft  swamp  mud  into  which 
most  of  them  fell.  Everybody  believed  that  the  forts  were  im- 
passable, and  thought  that  Farragut  would  soon  retire  from  the 
hopeless  attack.  The  city  was  given  up  to  gayety,  the  opera 
and  the  theatres  were  crowded  nightly,  and  balls  and  parties 
were  given  as  usual,  in  contempt  of  the  invaders  below.  But 
on  the  morning  of  the  24th  of  April  there  came  a  change.  Word 
had  been  received  that  the  fleet  had  passed  the  forts  and  was 
actually  on  the  way  up  to  the  city.     The  news  spread  like  wild- 


The  Manassas  on  Fire. 

fire.  The  people,  wonder-stricken  and  stunned,  crowded  the 
streets,  running  about,  scarcely  knowing  what  they  did.  Some 
refused  to  believe  the  report,  but  soon  flames  were  seen  to  rise 
from  the  ship-yards  in  Algiers,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river, 
where  the  great  iron-clad  Mississippi  and  other  vessels  were 
building,  and  then  all  hope  was  given  up:  the  Confederate  offi- 
cers were  burning  the  government  property  to  save  it  from 
falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

In  the  afternoon  General  Lovell,  who  had  been  down  the 
river  near  the  forts,  returned  and  began  to  make  preparations 
for  leaving.  The  ships  at  the  wharves  and  many  steamboats 
were  set  on  fire  and  set  adrift  in  the  river,  in  hope  that  some  of 
Farragut's  fleet  might  be  destroyed  by  them.  Thousands  of 
bales  of  cotton  and  hogsheads  of  sugar  were  carried  to  the  levee 
and  burned,  the  Confederate  officers  seizing  upon  vehicles  of 


1862.] 


NEW  ORLEANS  EXCITED. 


225 


every  kind  to  cart  them  from  the  storehouses.  Fires  blazed  for 
miles  along  the  levee,  and  dense  columns  of  smoke  hid  the  sun- 
light. The  day  was  warm,  and  the  air,  made  hotter  by  the 
fires,  was  almost  unbearable.  Drums  were  beating  and  troojis 
moving  in  the  streets,  the  church-bells  were  tolling,  and  above 
all  was  heard  the  dull  boom  of  Farragut's  cannon  engaging  the 
batteries  at  Chalmette,  about  three  miles  below  the  city,  the 
scene  of  General  Jackson's  great  victory  in  1814. 


The  Approaches  to  New  Orleans. 

Commodore  Farragut  had  passed  the  forts  safely  with  thir- 
teen vessels,  though  several  of  them  had  been  struck  by  shot 
many  times.  The  Union  loss  was  thirty-seven  killed,  and  one 
hundred  and  forty-seven  wounded;  the  Confederate  loss  in  the 
gunboats  is  unknown,  but  about  fifty  men  were  killed  in  the 
forts.  The  fleet  steamed  rapidly  up  the  river  through  the 
blazing  fire-rafts  and  cotton  ships,  and  after  silencing  the  bat- 


226 


NEW  ORLEANS. 


[1862. 


f 


teries  at  Chalmette,  came  to  anchor  opposite  New  Orleans  on 
the  afternoon  of  April  25.  Captain  Bailey  was  sent  ashore  to 
demand  its  surrender.  General  Lovell*  had  left  with  his  troops, 
and  the  city  was  in  the  hands  of  the  civil  authorities.  The 
Mayor  tried  to  avoid  a  surrender  because  the  forts  not  having 
yet  fallen,  he  hoped  that  the  city  might  be  saved.  Farragut 
sent  ashore  a  body  of  marines,  who  hoisted,  amid  the  hootings 
of  the  crowd,  the  Union  flag  over  the  United  States  Mint.  No 
guard  was  left,  and  as  soon  as  the  marines  were  gone  a  man 
named  William  B.  Mumford,  aided  by  some  young  men  belong- 
ing to  a  military  company,  tore  down  the  flag  and  dragged  it 
through  the  mud  of  the  streets  amid  the  cheers  of  many  of  the 
lookers-on.  Marines  were  again  landed  and  flags  were  hoisted 
over  both  the  Mint  and  the  Custom  House 
left  untouched. 


These  flags  were 


The  Louisiana. 

After  Farragut  passed  the  forts,  Porter  sent  some  of  the 
mortar  fleet  up  the  bayous  in  the  rear  of  Fort  Jackson,  while 
Butler  landed  some  troops  for  the  purpose  of  attacking  them 
from  the  land  side.  On  the  26th  Porter  demanded  their  sur- 
render, telling  their  commander  of  the  fall  of  New  Orleans; 
but  the  latter  bravely  refused,  saying  that  he  had  had  no  official 
news  of  the  capture  of  the  city.  The  garrison,  cut  off  from  all 
supplies  or  aid  and  unable  to  get  any  news  from  the  city, 
mutinied  and  spiked  the  guns  in  Fort  Jackson  in  the  night;  and 


*  General  Lovell,  though  born  in  Washington,  had  lived  long  in  New- 
York,  where  he  had  been  commissioner  of  public  works.  Much  fun  was 
made  of  him  in  the  Northern  newspapers  of  the  time  on  account  of  his 
hasty  departure  from  the  city;  but  there  was  really  nothing  else  for  him 
to  do.     A  ballad  about  him  is  given  in  the  Appendix,  page  565, 


1862.]  BUTLER  IN  NEW  ORLEANS.  227 

on  the  28th  the  forts  were  given  up  to  Commodore  Porter.  The 
iron-clad  Louisiana,  which  the  fleet  in  its  passage  had  unharmed, 
was  fired  by  her  officers  and  set  adrift,  probably  in  hope  that 
she  would  blow  up  among  the  mortar  fleet,  but  she  exploded 
with  a  great  noise  when  opposite  Fort  St.  Philip,  some  of  her 
fragments  killing  a  soldier  in  the  fort,  and  sank  to  the  bottom. 
The  other  Confederate  steamers  then  surrendered.  When  Fort 
Jackson  was  taken  possession  of,  the  flag  which  had  floated  over 
it  could  not  be  found.  The  flag-officer,  who  looked  like  a  very 
fleshy  man,  pretended  that  he  knew  nothing  of  it.  But  some  of 
the  Union  officers  thought  that  his  appearance  was  suspicious, 
and  on  searching  him  the  flag  was  found  wrapped  round  his 
body.     When  relieved  of  it  he  grew  thin  quite  suddenly. 

General  Butler  landed  with  some  of  his  troops  and  took 
possession  of  New  Orleans  on  the  1st  of  May.  Strict  orders 
had  been  given  that  the  soldiers  should  not  resent  any  insults 
as  they  marched  through  the  crowded  streets,  and  they  there- 
fore passed  in  silence  to  the  Custom  House,  though  assailed  on 
every  side  by  the  most  offensive  cries  by  the  roughs  of  the  city. 
But  no  fight  took  place,  the  public  property  was  taken  posses- 
sion of  and  guarded  by  cannon,  and  New  Orleans  passed  once 
more  into  the  power  of  the  government  after  a  little  more  than 
a  year  of  Confederate  rule. 

General  Butler's  course  while  in  command  in  New  Orleans 
was  the  cause  of  a  great  deal  of  bitter  feeling  among  the  Con- 
federates, who  commonly  spoke  of  him  as  "  Beast  Butler." 
Their  anger  was  chiefly  provoked  on  account  of  an  order  called 
the  "woman  order,"  which  gave  the  soldiers  liberty  to  treat  as 
bad  women  any  females  who  should  insult  them  in  the  streets. 
This  was  denounced  almost  everywhere  as  brutal,  and  the 
Southern  people  called  it  an  insult  to  their  wives  and  daugh- 
ters; but  General  Butler  claimed  that  the  order  had  no  refer- 
ence to  ladies,  and  that  it  was  necessary  because  common 
women  continually  insulted  officers  and  soldiers  in  the  streets, 
sometimes  going  so  far  as  to  spit  in  their  faces.  Whatever  may 
be  said  for  or  against  it,  it  seems  to  have  had  the  desired  effect, 
and  to  have  prevented  the  recurrence  of  the  acts  complained  of. 
Another  act  of  Butler's,  called  by  his  enemies  a  crime,  was  the 
hanging  of  Mumford,  the  man  who  had  pulled  down  the  Union 
flag  from  the  United  States  Mint.     The  people  of  New  Orleans 


228  NttW  ORLEANS.  [1862. 

said  that  Mumford  had  done  this  before  the  city  had  surren- 
dered, and  that  it  was  only  an  act  of  war.  But  the  court-martial 
which  tried  him  declared  that  it  was  an  act  of  treason,  and  Gen- 
eral Butler  determined  to  hang  him  for  the  sake  of  the  example, 
for  the  mob  was  becoming  so  daring  that  it  began  to  be  uncer- 
tain whether  it  or  the  authorities  sbould  rule. 

But  the  Confederates  accused  Butler  of  many  other  mis- 
doings while  in  command  of  New  Orleans.  They  said  that  he 
permitted  his  officers  and  friends  to  seize  the  houses  of  respect- 
able citizens  and  to  use  their  contents  at  will.  A  Southern 
historian  of  the  war  says:  "They  plundered  the  wardrobes  of 
ladies  and  gentlemen;  they  sent  away  from  the  city  the  cloth- 
ing of  whole  families;  they  'confiscated'  pianos,  libraries,  and 
whatever  articles  of  luxury  and  ornament  pleased  their  fancy, 
and  sent  them  as  presents  and  souvenirs  to  their  friends  at 
home A  trade  was  opened  in  provisions  for  cot- 
ton, and  Butler's  own  brother  was  made  banker  and  broker  of 
the  corrupt  operations,  buying  confiscated  property,  trading 
provisions  and  even  military  stores  for  cotton,  and  amassing,  out 
of  the  distress  of  an  almost  starving  people,  fortunes  of  princely 
amount  and  villanous  history."  Butler  was  accused  specially 
of  stealing  silvenvare,  and  many  pictures  of  him  were  printed 
in  the  illustrated  newspapers  of  the  time  marching  with  a  spoon 
over  his  shoulder  or  carrying  bundles  of  spoons  in  his  arms. 

General  Butler's  friends  deny  these  charges  as  base  and  silly 
slanders  of  his  enemies,  and  assert  that  he  did  more  for  the 
prosperity  of  New  Orleans  than  had  ever  been  done  by  any  one 
before  him;  that  he  gave  the  city  good  government,  and  made 
life  and  property  safe;  that  he  thoroughly  cleansed  its  streets 
and  saved  it  from  yellow  fever,  from  which  it  had  suffered 
almost  yearly;  that  he  used  the  money  collected  by  fines  from 
the  rich  in  the  public  service,  or  applied  it  to  the  wants  of  the 
city;  and  that  he  gave  food  and  work  to  the  poor,  and  saved 
them  from  oppression.  Whether  the  stories  told  about  him 
were  true  or  false,  it  is  evident  that  his  conduct  was  not  alto- 
gether satisfactory  to  the  government,  for  in  the  following 
November  General  Banks  wTas  ordered  to  take  command  in 
New  Orleans,  Butler  getting  the  first  news  of  his  recall  from 
Confederate  newspapers.  - 

Commodore  Farragut,  after  Butler's  arrival  in  New  Orleans, 


1862.]  FARRAGUT  AT  VICKSBURG.  229 

went  up  the  Mississippi,  and  kept  a  strict  watch  to  prevent  sup- 
plies from  being  sent  across  to  the  Confederate  armies  east  of 
the  river,  which  had  drawn  a  large  part  of  their  food  from  Texas. 
He  took  Baton  Rouge,  the  capital  of  Louisiana,  and  went  up 
to  Vicksburg,  where  he  arrived  on  the  18th  of  May.  Farragut 
made  a  demand  for  the  surrender  of  the  city,  but  the  brave 
Mayor  replied,  "  Mississippians  do  not  know  how  to  surrender." 
There  were  only  five  heavy  guns  mounted  on  the  works  at  the 
time,  and  if  Farragut  had  had  a  few  soldiers  he  might  easily 
have  taken  the  place.  A  bombardment  was  begun  a  few  days 
afterward,  and  it  was  kept  up  with  intervals  until  near  the  end 
of  July,  but  little  damage  was  done  by  it.  During  the  night 
of  the  28th  of  June  he  ran  safely  by  the  batteries  with  the 
Hartford  and  six  other  vessels,  and  met  the  fleet  of  Commodore 
Davis,  who  had  come  down  from  Memphis — the  flag  of  the 
Union  thus  being  carried  through  the  whole  of  the  Mississippi, 
from  the  free  States  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  But  Vicksburg  still 
remained  untaken,  and  as  it  was  useless  to  attack  its  formidable 
batteries  without  the  aid  of  a  strong  land  force,  Farragut  was 
ordered  to  go  down  the  river  again.  Before  leaving,  he  sent 
the  Carondelet,  Tyler,  and  Queen  of  the  West  up  the  Yazoo 
River  to  look  after  a  very  strong  iron-clad  vessel,  named  the 
Arkansas,  which  he  heard  was  building  there.  After  a  severe 
battle,  in  which  the  Carondelet  was  badly  injured,  the  gun- 
boats were  driven  off,  and  the  Arkansas  steamed  down  to  Vicks- 
burg, and  took  shelter  under  its  guns. 

Farragut,  who  in  the  meantime  had  been  made  a  rear-admi- 
ral, then  ran  by  the  Vicksburg  batteries  again  with  his  fleet, 
and  after  another  unsuccessful  attempt  to  destroy  the  Arkansas, 
went  down  the  river.  He  bombarded  and  nearly  destroyed 
Donaldsonville,  Louisiana,  because  his  vessels  were  fired  on  by 
guerrillas,  and  then  went  to  Baton  Rouge,  where  he  landed 
General  Williams  and  some  troops  to  hold  the  place.  Fortu- 
nately, part  of  the  fleet  was  left  there,  for  a  force  of  about  five 
thousand  Confederates,  under  General  John  C.  Breckinridge, 
attacked  the  city,  August  5,  and  might  have  taken  it  but  for 
the  aid  given  by  their  guns.  General  Williams  was  killed  in 
this  battle.  The  Confederates  had  expected  the  Arkansas  to 
help  them,  but  for  some  reason  she  did  not  appear,  and  the 
next  day  Captain  Porter  went  with  the  Essex,  Cayuga,  and 


230  NEW  ORLEANS.  [1862. 

Sumter  to  look  for  her.  She  was  met  about  five  miles  up  the 
river,  and  after  a  short  fight  was  driven  ashore,  where  she  was 
set  on  fire  by  her  crew  and  abandoned.  In  a  little  while  the 
flames  reached  her  magazine,  and  the  great  sea-going  monster, 
with  which  the  Confederates  had  hoped  to  retake  New  Orleans, 
was  blown  into  a  thousand  pieces. 

Admiral  Farragut,  on  leaving  the  Mississippi,  went  to  Pen- 
sacola,  which,  after  being  evacuated  by  the  Confederates,  had 
been  made  the  station  of  the  Western  Gulf  Squadron  instead  of 
Ship  Island.  In  September  he  sent  part  of  his  fleet  to  the  coast 
of  Texas,  and  took  possession  of  Corpus  Christi  and  Sabine 
Pass;  and  in  October  Galveston  was  captured,  but  it  was  re- 
taken by  the  Confederates  in  the  following  January. 


Capstan. 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 
MERRIMACK  AND  MONITOR. 

Iron- Clads.— The  Merrimack.— She  Steams  to  Hampton  Roads.— An  Iron  Storm.— Sinking 
of  the  Cumberland.— The  Congress  Surrenders.— The  Minnesota  in  Danger.— The 
Merrimack  Leaves  her  Prey.— A  Dismal  Night.— Arrival  of  the  Monitor.— A  Cheese- 
Box  on  a  Plank.— Explosion  of  the  Congress.— A  Sunday  Visit.— The  Monitor  in 
Waiting.— The  Cheese-Box  is  Made  of  Iron  !— Lieutenant  Worden  Wounded.— The 
Merrimack  Retreats.— The  Minnesota  Saved.— Honors  to  Ericsson.— Joe's  Dead. 

THE  first  iron-clad  vessels  built  during  the  war  were  those 
used  on  the  Western  rivers.  Among  these  were  the  St. 
Louis,  Carondelet,  Cairo,  Mound  City,  Louisville,  Cincinnati, 
and  Pittsburg,  built  by  James  B.  Eads,  a  civil  engineer  of 
St.  Louis,  who  has  since  become  famous  as  the  constructor  of 
the  great  bridge  across  the  Mississippi  at  St.  Louis  and  of  the 
work  for  deepening  the  channel  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  Confederates  had  early  turned  their  attention  to  the 
building  of  armored  vessels,  and  had  met  the  Union  gunboats 
with  the  Manassas  and  several  other  iron-clad  rams  and  gun- 
boats. They  had  also  begun  to  build  some  larger  and  still  more 
formidable  war-ships,  such  as  the  Louisiana  and  the  Mississippi 
at  New  Orleans  and  the  Virginia  at  Norfolk,  the  last-named 
being  better  known  as  the  Merrimack. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Merrimack,  one  of  the  finest 
steam-frigates  in  the  United  States  Navy,  had  been  set  on  fire 
and  scuttled  when  the  Gosport  Navy  Yard  was  abandoned  in 
April,  1861.  The  noble  vessel  sank  to  the  bottom  before 
the  flames  had  injured  her  much,  and  the  Confederates  soon 
after  raised  her,  cut  down  her  upper  deck  and  built  upon  her  a 
very  strong  timber  covering,  with  sloping  sides,  like  the  roof  of 
a  house.  The  outside  of  this  was  plated  with  iron  thick  enough 
to  be  proof  against  shot  from  the  most  powerful  guns  then  in 
use.  Her  bow  and  stern  were  both  under  water,  and  her  bow 
was  made  sharp  and  fitted  with  a  cast-iron  beak,  to  be  used  as 
a  ram.  This  novel  war  vessel,  which  was  finished  early  in 
March,  1862,  and  renamed  the  Virginia,  though  her  new  name 
did  not  stick  to  her,  was  armed  with  ten  heavy  guns,  four  on 
each  side,  one  in  the  bow,  and  one  in  the  stern,  put  under  the 


232 


MERRIMACK  AND  MONITOR. 


[1862. 


command   of   Captain   Franklin    Buchanan,    formerly  of   the 
United  States  Navy. 

The  Confederates  hoped  that  this  formidable  war-vessel 
would  enable  them  to  open  Hampton  Roads,  which  the  ships  of 
the  Union  had  kept  closely  blockaded  since  the  beginning  of 
the  war,  and  which  had  been  the  starting-place  of  the  naval 
expeditions  which  had  done  so  much  damage  to  their  coasts. 
Vague  rumors  of  this  new  engine  of  war  had  found  their  way 
North,  and  created  no  little  fear,  for  it  was  suggested  that  she 
might  easily  ascend  the  Potomac  and  destroy  Washington,  or 
steam  into  the  harbor  of  New  York  and  fire  the  city  with  her 
shells,  or  force  the  inhabitants  to  buy  safety  with  a  vast  sum  of 

money.  These  rumors 
probably  had  the  effect 
of  hastening  the  govern- 
ment in  building  iron- 
clads, several  of  which 
had  already  been  planned. 
At  last,  without  any 
warning,  the  dreaded 
sea  monster  made  her 
appearance  in  Hampton 
Eoads.  About  noon  of 
Saturday,  March  8, 1862, 
a  large  black  steamer, 
accompanied  by  two 
smaller  vessels,  was  seen 
coming  down  the  Eliza- 
beth River.  It  was  at  once  thought  to  be  the  long-expected 
Merrimack,  and  her  approach  was  signalled  to  the  fleet.  The 
Union  vessels  then  in  the  Roads  were  the  sailing  vessels  Cum- 
berland, 24  guns;  Congress,  50  guns;  and  St.  Lawrence,  50 
guns;  the  steamers  Roanoke  and  Minnesota,  each  of  40  guns; 
and  several  small  steamers.  The  Cumberland  and  the  Con- 
gress lay  off  Newport  News;  the  others  were  off  Fortress  Mon- 
roe, about  six  miles  distant.  Captain  Marston,  of  the  Roanoke, 
who  commanded  the  fleet,  at  once  started  with  his  steamer  and 
the  St.  Lawrence  for  Newport  News. 

The  drums  of  the  Cumberland  and  the  Congress  beat  to 
quarters  and  the  ships  were  prepared  for  action.     Their  crews 


Franklin  Buchanan. 


1862.]  SINKING  OF  TEE  CUMBERLAND.  233 

watched  curiously  every  movement  of  the  Confederate  battery, 
of  which  they  had  heard  such  terrible  reports.  On  she  came, 
steaming  slowly  toward  them,  her  chimneys  belching  black 
smoke,  and  her  flag  fluttering  defiantly  in  the  breeze,  while  the 
two  little  steamers  followed  close  behind.  When  she  was  about 
a  mile  distant  the  Cumberland  opened  fire  upon  her,  but  the 
"house  afloat,"  as  some  of  the  sailors  called  her,  came  on  with- 
out replying.  As  she  passed  the  Congress,  that  vessel  poured 
a  broadside  into  her,  but  the  balls  bounded  from  her  mailed 
sides  as  if  they  were  made  of  India-rubber.  The  Merrimack, 
conscious  of  her  strength,  steamed  grimly  on  through  the  iron 
storm  which  would  have  sunk  any  common  vessel,  and  steered 
directly  for  the  Cumberland,  which  lay  with  her  side  toward 
her  so  as  to  bring  her  broadside  to  bear.  The  Cumberland 
opened  a  heavy  fire  on  the  monster  which  she  could  not  escape, 
and  the  Merrimack,  amid  the  flash  and  roar  of  her  guns 
and  enveloped  in  a  pall  of  smoke  which  nearly  hid  her  from 
view,  went  with  a  crash  through  the  side  of  the  doomed  ship. 
The  Cumberland  shivered  from  end  to  end,  and  when  the 
Merrimack  drew  slowly  back  it  was  found  that  her  iron  beak 
had  passed  through  her,  making  a  ragged  hole  into  which 
the  water  rushed  fast.  The  Merrimack  then  fired  broadside 
after  broadside  into  her  sinking  foe;  but  the  gallant  men  of  the 
Cumberland,  never  dreaming  of  surrender,  stood  by  their  guns 
to  the  last.  In  three  quarters  of  an  hour  after  she  was  struck 
the  noble  ship  went  down  in  fifty-four  feet  of  water,  with  her 
flag  flying  at  the  peak.  The  dead  and  the  wounded  sank  with 
her;  of  the  rest  of  the  crew  some  swam  to  the  shore  and  some 
were  picked  up  by  small  boats;  but  of  three  hundred  and 
seventy-six  men,  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  were  lost. 

Meanwhile  the  two  little  vessels,  the  Beaufort  and  the 
Raleigh,  had  been  firing  into  the  Congress.  Three  other  small 
gunboats,  the  Patrick  Henry,  the  Jamestown,  and  the  Teazer, 
joined  them  in  the  attack.  The  Congress  replied  bravely  to 
their  fire  until  the  fate  of  the  Cumberland  showed  her  com- 
mander what  he  had  to  expect,  and  he  ordered  her  to  be  run 
ashore,  so  that  the  enemy  could  not  ram  her.  The  Merrimack 
then  fired  shells  into  her  with  great  effect,  dismounting  her 
guns,  and  killing  many  of  her  men.  At  last,  her  commander. 
Lieutenant  Joseph  B.  Smith,  and  a  large  part  of  her  crew  hav- 


234  MERRIMACK  AND  MONITOR.  [1862. 

ing  fallen,  and  the  ship  being  on  fire  in  several  places,  her  colors 
were  hauled  down.  Some  of  her  men  were  taken,  prisoners  by 
one  of  the  Confederate  steamers,  and  some  escaped  to  the  shore; 
but  many  were  killed  and  wounded,  and  only  about  half  of  her 
crew  of  four  hundred  and  thirty-four  answered  the  roll-call  next 
morning. 

But  where  were  the  three  frigates  which  had  left  Fortress 
Monroe  to  go  to  the  aid  of  these  unfortunate  ships?  They  had 
grounded  in  the  shallow  water,  and  had  watched  the  unequal 
struggle  more  than  a  mile  away,  powerless  to  help.  After  the 
destruction  of  the  Cumberland  and  the  Congress,  the  Merrimack 
and  the  gunboats  bore  down  to  attack  the  others.  The  Roan- 
oke by  this  time  had  got  off,  with  the  aid  of  tugs,  but  her 
machinery  being  damaged  she  returned  to  Fortress  Monroe. 
The  Merrimack  drew  so  much  water  that  she  could  not  get 
within  a  mile  of  the  stranded  vessels,  so  she  fired  shells  at 
them  from  a  distance,  the  gunboats  helping  her  with  their  fire. 
The  Minnesota  was  struck  several  times,  and  had  many  men 
killed  and  wounded.  At  last  the  St.  Lawrence  was  pulled  off 
by  tugs  and  taken  back  to  Fortress  Monroo,  but  the  Minnesota 
remained  fast  in  the  mud.  She  kept  up  a  fire  on  the  enemy, 
but  without  any  effect  on  the  armor  of  the  Merrimack,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  she  must  soon  suffer  the  fate  of  the  Congress.  But 
the  day  was  fast  waning,  and  at  length  about  seven  o'clock  the 
Confederates  left  their  prey  and  steamed  slowly  back  toward 
Norfolk. 

Saturday  night  was  a  dismal  one  at  Fortress  Monroe,  and 
few  eyes  closed  in  sleep.  The  return  of  the  Merrimack  on  the 
morrow  was  a  certainty,  and  there  seemed  to  be  little  chance  of 
saving  the  Minnesota.  What  the  monster  would  do  next  was 
a  question  which  no  one  could  decide.  General  Wool,  the  com- 
mander of  the  Fortress,  telegraphed  to  Washington  that  prob- 
ably both  the  Minnesota  and  the  St.  Lawrence  would  be  cap- 
tured, and  that  it  was  thought  the  enemy's  vessels  would  pass 
the  Fortress  that  night.  What  would  be  the  next  object  of 
attack  no  one  could  foresee.  But  the  Merrimack  did  not  appear 
again  that  night. 

About  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  a  queer-looking  vessel 
came  into  Hampton  Eoads,  and  anchored  near  the  Fortress. 
It  was  a  novel  steam-battery — the  now  famous  Monitor — which 


1862.] 


TEE  YANKEE  CHEESEBOX. 


235 


had  been  building  near  New  York  under  the  eye  of  her  invent- 
or, John  Ericsson,  a  Swede  by  birth,  but  long  a  resident  of  the 
United  States.  Much  had  been  heard  of  this  vessel,  and  a  great 
deal  had  been  promised  for  her  by  her  builder,  but  when  she 
came  into  the  Roads  everybody  was  disappointed.  What  could 
this  puny  thing  do  against  the  great  Merrimack,  more  than  five 
times  her  tonnage!  Her  sides  were  but  little  above  the  water, 
and  nothing  was  to  be  seen  on  her  deck  but  a  kind  of  round 
iron  box  in  the  middle,  a  pilot-house  forward,  and  a  small  smoke- 
stack aft.  At  a  mile's  distance  she  might  be  taken  for  a  raft — 
indeed,  the  Confederates  well  described  her  when  they  called 
her  a  "Yankee  cheese-box  on  a  plank."  But  when  one  went 
on  board,  her  great  strength  was  seen:  her  deck  was  plated  with 
shell-proof  iron,  and  her 
round  box,  called  a  turret, 
was  made  of  iron  plates  eight 
to  nine  inches  thick.  Inside 
this  turret,  which  was  made 
to  turn  round,  were  two  eleven- 
inch  Dahlgren  guns,  placed 
side  by  side,  so  that  both  could 
be  fired  together  at  the  same 
object.  Ordinary  ships  have 
to  be  turned  so  as  to  bring 
their  guns  to  bear  on  an 
enemy,  but  by  revolving  the 
turret    of    the    Monitor    her  j0HN  ERrcssoN. 

guns  could  be  fired  forward,  backward,  or  sideways  without 
changing  the  position  of  the  ship.  Her  bow,  too,1  was  made 
strong  and  sharp,  so  that  she  could  ram  in  the  side  of  an 
enemy's  vessel.  This  odd-shaped  craft  had  been  named  by  her 
inventor  the  Monitor  because,  he  said,  he  expected  that  she 
would  be  a  monitor  to  the  great  nations  of  Europe,  and  teach 
them  that  the  days  of  old-fashioned  ships  had  passed  away  for- 
ever. 

The  authorities  at  Washington,  frightened  at  the  prospect 
of  a  visit  from  the  Merrimack,  had  telegraphed  to  have  the 
Monitor  sent  there  as  soon  as  she  should  arrive  at  Fortress 
Monroe;  but  Captain  Marston,  thinking  it  important  to  do 
what  he  could  to  save  the  rest  of  the  fleet,  ordered  Lieutenant 


236 


MERRIMACK  AND  MONITOR. 


[1862. 


John  L.  Worden,  her  commander,  to  go  to  the  aid  of  the  Min- 
nesota. The  little  vessel  therefore  went  up  during  the  night 
and  took  a  position  alongside  the  Minnesota,  between  her  and 
the  Fortress,  where  she  could  not  be  seen  by  the  Confederates 
but  could  be  ready  to  slip  out  in  case  the  Merrimack  and  her 
gunboats  came  to  finish  their  work.  The  whole  bay  and  the 
shores  were  lighted  up  by  the  flames  of  the  Congress,  which 
had  been  burning  many  hours.  Her  guns  went  oft'  one  by  one 
as  the  fire  reached  them,  and  at  last,  a  little  after  midnight,  her 
magazine,  which  contained  five  tons  of  gunpowder,  went  off 
with  a  grand  explosion,  which  threw  the  blazing  fragments  of 
the  ship  over  the  waters  a  great  distance  around. 


Inside  of  the  Monitor's  Turret. 

The  Monitor  did  not  have  to  wait  long,  for  early  on  Sunday 
morning  the  monster  was  seen  coming  down  again,  followed 
by  two  gunboats  crowded  with  troops.  The  Confederates 
evidently  hoped  to  board  the  Minnesota  and  capture  both  her 
and  her  crew,  and  this  is  probably  the  reason  why  they  did  not 
destroy  her  the  night  before.  As  the  Merrimack  approached, 
the  Monitor  slipped  out  from  behind  the  Minnesota  and  steamed 
straight  at  her.  She  looked  like  a  pigmy  beside  the  great 
mailed  battery,  whose  black  sides  roso  up  higher  than  the  top 
of  her  turret.  The  crew  of  the  Merrimack  did  not  know  what 
to  make  of  the  odd  little  craft,  that  had  appeared  as  suddenly 
as  if  it  had  risen  from  the  depths  of  the  sea,  but  they  soon 


1862.] 


MONITOR  AND  MERRIMACK. 


237 


found  out  that  it  had  teeth,  for  when  the  Monitor  had  come 
within  a  hundred  yards  of  her  foe,  she  opened  fire  with  her 
great  guns.  The  Merrimack,  astonished  at  her  reception,  threw 
open  her  ports  and  poured  into  her  several  broadsides  such  as 
had  sunk  the  wooden  ships;  but  the  steel  shot  glanced  as  harm- 
lessly from  her  turret  as  had  the  balls  of  the  Cumberland  and 
the  Congress  from  her  own  armor  the  day  before,  and  her  crew 
cried  out  in  wonder,  "  The  cheese-box  is  made  of  iron!"  From 
eight  o'clock  until  noon  the  battle  raged.  The  Monitor,  more 
easily  managed  than  her  antagonist,  sailed  round  and  round  the 
Merrimack  firing  and  receiving  her  broadsides  in  return,  the  two 
being  often  so  near  to  each  other  that  their  sides  touched.  Once 
the  Merrimack  got  aground,  but  getting  afloat  ngain  she  turned 


Battle  Between  the  Merrimack  and  the  Monitor. 

savagely  upon  the  Monitor  and  ran  directly  at  her,  hoping  to 
run  her  down.  But  though  she  struck  her  so  hard  that  the 
Monitor's  crew  were  nearly  thrown  off  their  feet,  she  did  not 
damage  the  vessel  in  the  least. 

The  Merrimack,  finding  that  she  was  only  wasting  her  am- 
munition on  the  Monitor,  fired  a  shell  into  the  Minnesota, 
setting  her  on  fire.  Another  shell  struck  the  boiler  of  a  tug-  - 
boat  near  the  Minnesota  and  blew  her  up.  But  the  Monitor 
was  not  to  be  cheated  in  this  way.  She  steamed  up  between 
the  Minnesota  and  the  Merrimack  and  renewed  the  battle.  The 
Merrimack  now  trained  her  guns  on  the  Monitor's  pilot  house, 
which  was  built  of  wrought-iron  beams  a  foot  thick.     A  solid 


238 


MERRIMACK  AND  MONITOR. 


[1862. 


shot  broke  one  of  these  beams  in  two,  and  drove  it  inward  an 
inch  and  a  half.  Lieutenant  Worden,  who  at  the  time  had  his 
eyes  close  to  a  slit  between  the  bars,  watching  the  Merrimack, 
was  severely  wounded  in  the  face  so  as  to  lose  his  eyesight  for  a 
long  time.  He  was  therefore  obliged  to  give  up  the  command 
to  Lieutenant  Greene,  who  continued  the  fight.  But  after  a 
few  more  broadsides,  the  Merrimack,  finding  that  she  could  do 
nothing  with  her  enemy,  gave  up  the  battle  and  steamed  back 
to  Norfolk,  followed  by  her  gunboats. 

The  breaking  of  the  beam  in  the  pilot-house  was  the  only 
damage  the  Monitor  received,  although  she  was  struck  twenty- 
two  times.  The  injuries 
of  the  Merrimac  in  the 
two  days'  fight  were  al- 
most as  trivial;  her  iron 
beak  was  twisted,  some 
of  her  armor  plates  dam- 
aged, her  smoke  and 
steam  pipes  riddled,  and 
her  anchor  and  flag-staffs 
shot  away.  Two  of  her 
guns  also  had  their  muz- 
zles shot  off.  The  Moni- 
tor returned  to  Fortress 
Monroe  and  remained 
there  on  the  watch  for 
her  rival,  but  the  Merri- 
mack did  not  see  fit  to  try  her  mettle  again.  The  Minnesota 
was  lightened  and  put  afloat  again  during  the  following  night, 
to  the  delight  of  her  captain  and  crew,  who  had  fought  her  so 
nobly  and  under  such  trying  circumstances. 

Honors  were  showered  on  Ericsson,  the  inventor,  and  on 
Worden,  the  commander  of  the  Monitor,  for  all  felt  that  to 
them  were  due  our  deliverance  from  great  peril.  Chief  Engineer 
Stimers,  who  was  on  the  Monitor  during  the  battle,  wrote  to 
Captain  Ericsson  as  follows:  "  I  congratulate  you  on  your  great 
success.  Thousands  have  this  day  blessed  you.  I  have  heard 
whole  crews  cheer  you.  Every  man  feels  that  you  have  saved 
this  place  to  the  nation  by  furnishing  us  with  the  means  to 
whip  an  iron-clad  frigate  that  was,  until  our  arrival,  having  it 


John  L.  Worden. 


1862.]  JOE'S  DEAD.  239 

all  her  own  way  with  our  most  powerful  vessels."  But  the 
Monitor  did  far  more  than  save  a  few  ships  and  a  fortress — it 
settled  the  question  of  naval  power  in  favor  of  the  Union  and 
taught  the  nations  of  the  Old  World  who  wished  to  see  our 
country  divided  that  it  would  be  dangerous  for  them  to  inter- 
fere in  the  quarrel.  The  government,  which  had  built  the 
Monitor  on  trial,  recognized  her  great  value  and  at  once  began 
to  construct  other  vessels  of  the  same  model,  and  by  the  next 
year  the  United  States  bad  a  fleet  of  iron  ships  afloat  able  to 
defend  their  coasts  against  the  navies  of  all  the  rest  of  the 
world. 

Lieutenant  Worden  was  so  shocked  by  the  concussion  of  the 
shot  which  had  so  nearly  blinded  him  that  he  was  insensible  for 
some  time.  When  he  came  to  himself,  his  first  question  was, 
"Have  I  saved  the  Minnesota?" 

"Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "and  whipped  the  Merrimack." 

"Then  I  don't  care  what  becomes  of  me,"  he  answered. 

McKean  Buchanan,  brother  of  the  commander  of  the  Mer- 
rimack, was  a  paymaster  on  the  Congress  at  the  time  of  the 
battle;  but  desiring  to  do  active  duty,  he  asked  the  commander 
to  give  him  a  place  on  the  upper  decks.  He  served  gallantly 
through  the  action,  and  in  his  report  to  the  Navy  Department 
he  said,  "  Thank  God,  I  did  some  service  to  my  beloved  country." 

Lieutenant  Joseph  B.  Smith,  the  commander  of  the  Con- 
gress, who  was  noted  for  his  bravery,  fell  before  the  ship  sur- 
rendered. When  his  father,  the  veteran  Commodore  Joseph 
Smith,  who  was  on  duty  at  Washington,  saw  by  the  first  de- 
spatch from  Fortress  Monroe  that  the  Congress  had  raised  the 
white  flag,  he  only  remarked  quietly,  "Joe's  dead."  The  feel- 
ing that  his  son  would  never  surrender  his  trust  while  alive  was 
well  founded.  The  ship's  flag  was  not  lowered  until  his  son 
had  fallen. 


CHAPTER  XX. 
PENINSULA   CAMPAIGN. 

The  Grand  Army  of  the  Potomac— Washington  and  Richmond.— McClellan  III.— Ed- 
win M.  Stanton. — Plans  for  Taking  Richmond.— President  Lincoln's  Order.— Opposi- 
tion to  McClellan.— The  Confederates  Leave  Manassas.— McClellan's  Command 
Changed.— Stonewall  Jackson  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.— General  Banks  Opposes 
him.— The  Potomac  free.— The  Army  Goes  to  the  Penlnsula.— The  French  Princes.— 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  the  Politicians.— Siege  of  Yorktown  —  Big  Nigger,  Come  Down  !— 
Old  Seth.— Joseph  E.Johnston.— Torpedoes.— Battle  of  Williamsburg.— The  Chicka- 
hominy.— Norfolk.—  Drury's  Bluff.— Pa>ic  in  Richmond. 

WE  must  return  once  more  to  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac, which  we  left  in  winter  quarters  around  Washing- 
ton, but  little  more  than  a  day's  march  from  the  camp  of  the 
Confederates  at  Manassas.  Before  following  the  movements  of 
these  two  great  forces,  let  us  look  for  a  few  moments  at  the 
task  which  the  Union  army  had  to  accomplish,  and  the  several 
ways  of  doing  it.  Its  first  duty  was  to  protect  Washington, 
which  unfortunately  was  situated  on  the  borders  of  one  of  the 
Confederate  States,  where  it  was  open  to  attacks  from  the 
enemy,  who  could  easily  march  against  it  either  from  Manassas 
or  from  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Its  second  duty  was  to  take 
Richmond,  the  Confederate  capital,  which  lies  about  a  hundred 
miles  south-south-west  of  Washington,  on  the  north  bank  of 
the  James  River.  * 

The  nature  of  the  country  between  the  Potomac  River  and 
Richmond  is  such  as  to  make  the  passage  across  it  of  an  invad- 
ing army  very  difficult.  If  you  will  look  at  any  large  atlas 
you  will  see  that  it  is  crossed  by  several  rivers,  all  having  a  gen- 
eral southeasterly  course.  The  first  of  these  rivers,  beginning 
at  the  north,  the  Occoquan,  which  flows  into  the  Potomac,  is 
formed  by  the  union  of  Bull  Run  and  Cedar  Run.  The  next, 
the  Rappahannock,  whose  waters  reach  the  Atlantic  through 
Chesapeake  Bay,  is  formed  by  the  junction  of  the  North  Fork 
and  the  Rapidan.  Then  come  the  Mattapony  (made  up  of 
four  small  streams,  the  Mat,  the  Ta,  the  Po,  and  the  Ny)  and 
the  Pamunkey  (formed  of  the  North  Anna  and  the  South 
Anna),  which  unite  and  form  the  York  River,  flowing  also  into 


1862.] 


WAYS  TO  MCBMOND. 


241 


Chesapeake  Bay.  South  of  all  these  is  the  Chickahominy, 
which  pours  its  waters  into  the  James  River  below  Richmond. 
The  Confederates  made  lines  of  defence  behind  most  of  these 
rivers  during  the  war,  and  for  four  long  years  repelled  the  at- 
tempts of  the  Union  army  to  drive  them  back. 

There  were  several  ways  by  which  Richmond  might  be  at- 
tacked from  Washington:  the  army  might  march  directly 
against  Gerieral  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  whose  forces  still  lay  be- 
hind Bull  Run,  which  Beauregard  had  chosen  in  the  beginning 
of  the  war  for  his  line  of  defence;  or  it  might  move  through 
Maryland  down  the  east  bank  of  the  Potomac  to  a  point  oppo- 
site Fredericksburg,  and  crossing  the  river  march  by  the  direct 
road  from  that  city  to 
Richmond;  or  it  might 
go  by  water  to  the  lower 
part  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock River  or  to  Fortress 
Monroe,  from  both  of 
which  places  roads  led 
to  Richmond. 

After  a  long  time  of 
inactivity  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  was  at  last 

considered  read v  to  move     -o>  ',     "[  */>*■* 

against    the    enemy.     It  x'^^^^^^^P 

will  be  remembered  that 
General  McClellan  had 
had  not  only  the  duty  of  Edwin  m-  Stanton- 

organizing  this  great  force,  which  numbered  nearly  two  hun- 
dred thousand  men,  but  also  general  charge  of  military  opera- 
tions in  all  parts  of  the  country.  It  was  under  his  directions 
that  the  successful  movements  were  made  in  Missouri,  Ken- 
tucky, and  Tennessee,  and  it  was  he  who  planned  the  expeditions 
which  resulted  in  the  occupation  of  the  inland  waters  of  North 
Carolina,  the  capture  of  the  forts  on  the  coasts,  and  the  fall  of 
New  Orleans.  While  attending  to  these  difficult  duties  Gen- 
eral McClellan  was  seized  with  a  serious  illness  which  lasted 
several  weeks.  When  he  recovered,  about  the  middle  of  Janu- 
ary, Mr.  Cameron,  the  Secretary  of  War,  had  been  succeeded  in 
his  office  by  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  an  able  lawyer,  and  a  man  of 


242  PENINSULA   CAMPAIGN.  [1862. 

great  energy,  but  without  any  military  knowledge.  General 
McClellan  laid  before  him  his  plan  to  move  the  greater  part 
of  the  army  to  Urbana,  on  the  Rappahannock  River,  leaving 
behind  enough  to  defend  Washington.  This,  he  claimed,  while 
being  the  best  route  to  advance  against  Richmond,  would  force 
General  Johnston  to  leave  Manassas  in  order  to  prevent  the 
Union  army  from  getting  between  him  and  Richmond.  But 
President  Lincoln,  who  was  always  in  great  fear  lest  Washing- 
ton should  be  taken,  disapproved  of  this  plan,  and  .insisted 
that  the  army  should  move  directly  on  Manassas;  and  on  the 
27th  of  January  he  issued  an  order  that  all  the  armies,  including 
those  in  the  West  as  well  as  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  the 
fleets  in  the  Mississippi  and  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  should 
make  a  general  movement  against  the  enemy  on  the  22d  of 
February.  Of  course  this  very  singular  order,  made  without 
consultation  with  any  of  the  officers  in  command  of  the  armies 
and  fleets,  and  without  any  regard  to  the  circumstances  by  which 
each  was  surrounded,  could  not  be  obeyed. 

General  McClellan  made  a  statement  in  writing  to  the  Presi- 
dent showing  why  the  proposed  movement  against  Manassas 
was  not  so  good  as  the  one  suggested  by  him,  and  Mr.  Lincoln, 
apparently  convinced  that  he  was  in  the  wrong,  ordered  the 
Secretary  of  War  to  get  together  vessels  enough  to  carry  the 
army  to  the  Rappahannock.  But  even  after  the  vessels  were 
making  ready,  Mr.  Lincoln,  still  uneasy  and  dissatisfied,  asked 
General  McClellan  to  submit  the  two  plans  to  a  council  of  the 
principal  officers  of  the  army.  This  was  done  on  March  8th, 
and  General  McClellan's  plan  was  approved  by  eight  out  of  the 
twelve  generals  present. 

So  it  was  finally  decided  that  the  advance  should  be  made 
according  to  this  plan,  but  the  President  and  Mr.  Stanton  were 
still  so  opposed  to  it  that  McClellan  was  not  allowed  to  use  the 
army  which  he  had  made  as  he  thought  best,  nor  even  to  select 
his  own  officers.  The  army  was  divided,  without  consulting 
him,  into  four  corps,  under  the  command  of  Generals  Keyes, 
Sumner,  Heintzelman,  and  McDowell,  the  last  three  of  whom 
were  among  the  four  generals  who  had  voted  against  his  plan. 
His  movements  were  tied  in  other  ways,  which  we  have  not 
room  to  discuss  here;  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  President, 
though  acting  as  he  believer!  for  the  best  interests  of  the  coun- 


1863.]  MARCH  TO  MANASSAS.  243 

try,  was  influenced  by  political  friends  who  were  enemies  of  the 
young  general  because  they  believed  that  he  was  becoming  too 
popular  with  the  army.  These  men  brought  such  a  pressure  to 
bear  on  the  President,  by  talking  to  him,  by  articles  in  the 
newspapers,  and  in  other  ways,  that  he  was  forced  to  do  many 
things  which  his  reason  told  him  was  wrong. 

If  he  was  not  satisfied  with  General  McClellan,  it  was  his 
plain  duty  to  remove  him  and  put  some  one  in  whom  ho  had 
more  confidence  in  his  place;  and  if  he  was  satisfied  with  him, 
he  ought  to  have  given  him  all  the  aid  in  his  power  to  carry  out 
the  plans  which  he  had  formed  for  ending  the  war.  But  Mr. 
Lincoln  did  neither.  lie  agreed  to  his  plans  only  when  he  was 
forced  to  do  so  by  a  vote  of  two  to  one  in  the  council  of  officers, 
and  even  after  he  had  accepted  them  he  did  not  allow  him  to 
execute  them  in  his  own  way,  but  bound  him  with  so  many  re- 
strictions that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  do  as  he  wished. 

The  question  of  the  movement  against  Richmond  was  soon 
settled  in  an  unexpected  way.  In  February  the  Confederates 
made  up  their  minds  to  leave  Manassas  for  a  position  below  the 
Rappahannock,  where  they  would  be  better  able  to  oppose 
McClellan  in  case  he  attacked  by  way  of  Fredericksburg  or  the 
Rappahannock.  They  began  to  move  their  provisions  and  war 
stores  February  23,  and  on  the  morning  of  March  10  the  rear 
guard  of  the  army  set  fire  to  the  storehouses  and  huts  and  left 
the  place  for  the  Rappahannock,  destroying  the  bridges  as  they 
went. 

As  the  vessels  were  not  yet  ready,  General  McClellan  marched 
the  army  to  Manassas  and  sent  Stonemans  cavalry  after  the 
enemy,  but  the  roads  were  found  to  be  in  too  bad  a  condition 
to  pursue,  and  leaving  a  force  to  hold  Manassas,  the  bulk  of 
the  army  returned  to  Alexandria.  While  absent  from  Wash- 
ington, General  McClellan  heard  through  a  newspaper  that  he 
had  been  removed  from  the  office  of  general-in-chief  and  ordered 
to  command  only  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  This  change  was 
made  without  consulting  him,  but  although  the  way  in  which 
it  was  done  made  it  almost  an  insult,  he  accepted  it  cheerfully, 
and  he  wrote  to  the  President  that  "no  consideration  of  self 
will  in  any  manner  interfere  with  the  discharge  of  my  public 
duties." 

Stonewall  Jackson  had  been  left  by  the  Confederates  in  the 


244  PENINSULA   CAMPAIGN.  [1862. 

Valley  of  the  Shenandoah  to  watch  General  Banks  and  prevent 
him  from  sending  any  men  to  McClellan's  army.  Jackson,  who 
had  only  a  small  force,  fell  back  before  Banks,  who  was  advanc- 
ing up  the  valley.  Part  of  Banks's  force,  under  General  Shields, 
followed  him,  and  Banks  with  the  rest  of  his  troops  marched 
toward  Manassas,  he  having  been  chosen  to  defend  Washington 
while  McOlellan  moved  against  Richmond.  Jackson,  hearing 
that  Banks  had  withdrawn  part  of  his  force,  attacked  Shields 
at  Kernstown,  near  Winchester,  but  met  with  a  severe  repulse 
and  again  retreated  southward.  Banks,  hearing  of  this,  re- 
turned with  his  men  to  the  Valley,  and  General  Wadsworth  was 
placed  in  command  at  Washington. 

The  evacuation  of  Manassas  by  General  Johnston  led  to 
another  change  in  the  plan  of  attack.  The  movement  to  the 
Rappahannock  would  not  now  cut  off  the  Confederates  from 
Richmond,  so  it  was  determined  to  transport  the  army  to  For- 
tress Monroe  and  to  march  on  Richmond  by  way  of  the  Penin- 
sula, the  long  isthmus  lying  between  the  York  and  the  James 
rivers.  The  Confederates  had  removed  their  batteries  from  the 
banks  of  the  Potomac  at  the  time  they  withdrew  from  Manassas, 
and  as  this  left  the  river  free,  the  vessels  to  carry  the  troops  came 
directly  up  to  Washington  and  Alexandria.  Nearly  four  hun- 
dred steamboats,  schooners,  and  barges  were  employed  in  the 
work,  and  by  the  beginning  of  April  more  than  one  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  men,  many  thousand  horses,  mules,  and 
wagons,  forty-four  batteries  of  cannon,  and  large  quantities  of 
supplies  of  all  kinds,  were  reported  to  have  been  landed  at  For- 
tress Monroe.  This  immense  work  was  done  in  little  more  than 
a  month. 

Among  the  officers  on  General  McClellan's  staff  were  the 
two  French  princes,  Louis  Philippe  d'Orleans,  better  known 
as  the  Comte  de  Paris,  and  his  brother,  Robert  d'Orleans,  com- 
monly called  the  Due  de  Chartres.  The  Comte  de  Paris,  the 
heir  of  the  claims  of  his  grandfather,  King  Louis  Philippe,  to 
the  throne  of  France,  was  then  twenty-three  years  old,  and  his 
brother  was  twenty-one.  The  princes  came  to  the  United 
States  in  1861,  in  company  with  their  uncle,  the  Prince  de 
Joinville,  and  in  September  were  commissioned  as  captains  of 
volunteers  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  and  given  posi- 
tions as  aids-de-camp  under  General  McClellan.     They  accepted 


1862.]  FRENCH  PRINCES.  245 

the  positions  on  condition  that  they  should  receive  no  pay,  as 
their  object  was  only  to  see  something  of  military  life,  and 
they  served  gallantly  through  the  whole  of  McClellan's  cam- 
paign against  Richmond. 

The  Prince  de  Joinville  also  accompanied  General  McClel- 
lan, and  as  he  had  had  much  military  experience  in  Algeria  and 
elsewhere,  his  advice  was  of  great  value.  He  was  a  grave,  dig- 
nified man,  fond  of  rambling  around  by  himself  and  seeing 
what  was  going  on,  and  the  soldiers  soon  got  to  know  him  well. 
But  soon  after  his  arrival  at  Fortress  Monroe,  while  taking  a 
stroll  on  the  wharf,  he  was  stopped  by  a  sentry  who  did  not 
recognize  him,  and  who  demanded  to  see  his  pass.  The  Prince 
shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  with  a  look  of  annoyance  took  out 
the  paper  and  handed  it  to  him.  The  sentry  examined  it  care- 
fully, pronounced  it  all  right,  and  told  the  prince  to  "pass  on." 
Just  then  a  comrade  of  the  sentry,  who  had  seen  the  affair,  came 
up,  and  said,  "Do  you  know  who  that  is  you  just  stopped?" 

"  Hang  me  if  I  do.     I  never  saw  the  chap  before." 

"  Well,"  continued  his  friend,  "  that  chap  is  the  Prince  de 
Joinville." 

The  sentry  gave  a  loud  whistle,  and  for  several  moments 
seemed  to  have  discovered  something  about  the  lock  of  his 
musket  which  needed  close  inspection. 

General  McClellan  reached  Fortress  Monroe  on  the  2d  of 
April.  It  seemed  as  if  he  were  about  to  be  permitted  to  carry 
out  his  plans  without  further  interference  from  Washington; 
but  on  the  day  after  his  arrival  he  received  a  despatch  that  by 
the  President's  orders  the  command  of  Fortress  Monroe,  which 
had  been  put  under  his  control  before  leaving  Washington,  was 
taken  from  him,  and  he  was  forbidden  to  take  any  of  the  troops 
from  there  without  General  Wool's  leave.  On  the  next  day 
(April  4)  another  despatch  was  sent  to  him  informing  him  that, 
by  direction  of  the  President,  General  McDowell's  corps  was  re- 
moved from  his  command.  These  changes  cut  down  General 
McClellan's  army  to  about  eighty-five  thousand  men,  and  caused 
a  change  in  his  plan  of  operations. 

General  McDowell  was  made  commander  of  a  new  Depart- 
ment of  the  Eappahannock.  The  President  gave  as  his  reason 
for  making  the  change  that  General  McClellan  had  not  left 
troops  enough  behind  to  protect  Washington;  but,  according  to 


246 


PENINSULA   CAMPAIGN. 


[1862. 


that  general's  report,  there  were  then  seventy-three  thousand 
men  in  and  around  Washington  who  could  have  been  used  to 
defend  it  in  case  of  an  attack.  But  the  politicians  in  Washing- 
ton had  persuaded  Mr.  Lincoln  that  the  capital  was  in  danger, 
and  he  was  thus  induced  to  withdraw  forty-five  thousand  of  the 
best  troops  from  McClellan's  army  when  he  was  on  the  eve 
of  making  the  most  important  movement  of  the  war.  The 
State  of  Virginia,  too,  instead  of  being  made  a  department 
in  command  of  one  officer,  was  divided  into  five  or  six 
departments,  under  as  many  generals,  each  independent  of  the 
other. 

General  McClellan's  plan  was  to  make  a  combined  land  and 
naval  attack  on  Yorktown,  which  General  Magruder,  then  in 

command  there,  had  strongly 
fortified,  and  after  taking 
that  place  to  move  up  the 
York  River  to  West  Point, 
about  twenty-five  miles  from 
Richmond,  and  to  make  that 
the  landing-place  of  his  sup- 
plies, and  the  point  from 
which  to  move  against  the 
enemy.  The  James  River 
would  have  been  a  more  direct 
route,  but  it  was  blockaded 
by  gunboats  and  batteries. 
The  army  reached  the  Confed- 
erate lines,  which  stretched 
from  Yorktown  nearly  across  to  the  James  River,  on  the  5th  of 
April.  General  McClellan  had  counted  on  taking  Yorktown 
quickly  by  the  aid  of  gunboats  in  the  York  River,  but  he  was 
informed  that  no  naval  vessels  could  be  spared.  It  had  been  a 
part  of  his  plan,  too,  to  land  McDowell's  corps  above  York- 
town,  but  that  too  was  defeated  by  the  keeping  of  that  portion 
of  his  army  in  front  of  Washington.  The  works  before  the 
place  were  pronounced  by  General  Barnard.  Chief  Engineer  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  too  strong  to  be  carried  by  assault. 
General  McClellan  was  therefore  obliged  to  lay  regular  siege  to 
them.  Trenches  were  dug,  and  redoubts  and  batteries  built, 
and  after  a  month's  toil,  during  which  many  men  were  disabled 


J.  B.  Magruder. 


1862.]  SHARPSHOOTING.  247 

by  sickness,  preparations  were  made  to  open  fire  on  Yorktown 
on  May  6. 

The  enemy  were  not  idle  while  this  work  was  going  on  in 
the  trenches,  but  kept  up  a  continual  fire  from  rifle-pits  in  front 
of  their  works.  The  Union  sharpshooters  replied,  and  any  one 
on  either  side  who  showed  any  part  of  his  body  was  pretty  sure 
to  be  hit.  One  of  the  most  skilful  of  the  Confederate  marks- 
men was  a  large  negro,  who  used  to  perch  himself  in  a  tree  and 
lie  there  all  day,  firing  whenever  he  saw  a  chance  for  a  good 
shot. .  He  had  in  this  way  killed  several  Union  soldiers,  and  the 
sharpshooters  had  watched  a  long  time  for  him.  At  last  the 
Union  trenches,  which  were  gradually  being  dug  nearer  and 
nearer,  reached  a  place  only  about  twenty  rods  from  the  tree. 
One  morning  the  darky  came  out  early  and  took  his  accustomed 
place  in  the  tree.  The  sharpshooters  might  have  easily  killed 
him  as  he  came  out,  but  they  did  not  want  to  frighten  others 
who  were  coming.  He  was  followed  soon  by  several  Confeder- 
ate pickets,  on  whom  the  men  fired,  killing  some  and  driving 
the  others  back.  The  darky,  of  course,  was  now  "in  a  fix," 
or,  in  other  words,  was  "up  a  tree,"  for  he  could  not  get  back 
without  running  the  risk  of  being  shot. 

"I  say,  big  nigger,"  called  out  one  of  the  Union  marks- 
men from  the  trenches,  "you'd  better  come  down  from 
there." 

"What  for?"  he  asked. 

"I  want  you  as  a  prisoner." 

"Not  as  this  chile  knows  of,"  he  answered. 

"All  right.     Just  as  you  say,"  called  out  the  marksman. 

In  about  an  hour  Mr.  Darky,  hearing  nothing  from  in  front 
of  his  tree,  concluded  that  it  was  safe  to  take  just  one  peep;  so 
he  poked  his  head  out  far  enough  to  get  a  look  at  the  Union 
lines.  But  the  sharpshooter  had  not  taken  his  eye  from  the 
tree  for  an  instant,  and  no  sooner  did  the  head  appear  than  he 
pulled  the  trigger  of  his  rifle.  A  little  puff  of  blue  smoke — a 
flash — the  whiz  of  a  bullet — and  down  came  the  negro  to  the 
ground  shot  through  the  head. 

Among  the  Berdan  Sharpshooters  was  a  queer  old  fellow 
known  to  his  comrades  as  Old  Seth.  He  was  a  crack  shot  in  the 
regiment,  and  seldom  missed  his  aim.  One  night  at  roll-call 
Old  Seth  did  not  answer  to  his  name,  and  this  being  an  unusual 


248 


PENINSULA   CAMPAIGN. 


[1SG2. 


thing,  a  sergeant  went  to  hunt  him  up.     "While  looking  beyond 
the  picket-line,  where  Seth  was  wont  to  post  himself  every  day, 
the  sergeant's  attention  was  arrested  by  a  soft  "halloo!" 
"Who's  there?"  inquired  the  sergeant. 
"  It's  me,"  replied  Seth.      "  I've  captured  a  Secesh  gun." 
"Bring  it  in,"  said  the  sergeant. 
"Can't  do  it,"  answered  Seth.     It's  over  there." 
The  sergeant  then  saw  that  Old  Seth  had  the  exact  range  of 
one  of  the  enemy's  heaviest  guns,  and  the  gunners  could  not 
load  it  for  fear  of  being  picked  off  by  him. 

"Fetch  me  a  couple  of  haversacks  full  of  grub,"  continued 
the  old  man.  "  This  is  my  gun,  and  the  varmints  shan't  fire  it 
again  while  the  scrimmage  lasts. 

The  old  man  was  given  his  "grub,"  and  he  kept  watch  over 
his  gun  until  Yorktown  was  evacuated. 

As  soon  as  the  Confederate  authorities  knew  that  McClellan 

was  moving  on  Yorktown, 
General  Johnston,  who  had 
before  commanded  only  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia, 
as  the  force  at  Manassas  was 
called,  was  given  charge  also 
of  the  troops  in  the  Peninsula 
and  at  Norfolk.  General 
Magruder,  who  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  defences  at  York- 
town,  had  only  thirteen 
thousand  men  when  McClel- 
lan arrived,  but  his  force  was 
soon  increased  to  fifty-three 
thousand,  and  on  April  17 
General  Johnston  himself  took  command  of  it.  Finding  that 
McClellan  was  mounting  heavy  rifled  guns  to  bombard  his  works, 
and  having  only  old-fashioned  smooth-bore  guns  to  defend  with, 
Johnston  determined  to  retreat.  This  he  did  on  the  night  of 
May  3,  and  the  Union  army  took  possession  of  the  works  the 
next  morning.  In  doing  this  several  men  had  their  feet  blown 
off  or  were  otherwise  wounded  by  torpedoes  buried  in  the 
ground  by  the  Confederates.  They  were  so  made  that  the 
pressure  of  a  man  or  a  horse's  foot  would  explode  them.    Other 


Joseph  E.  Johnston. 


1862.]  BATTLE  OF  WILLIAMSBURG.  249 

kinds  of  torpedoes  were  hidden  in  carpet-bags,  in  flour  barrels, 
and  in  places  where  men  would  be  likely  to  go.  General  McClcl- 
lan  made  some  Confederate  officers,  who  were  prisoners,  search 
for  and  remove  them  all. 

The  retreating  enemy  was  vigorously  pursued  by  the  Union 
cavalry  under  General  Stoneman,  followed  by  the  infantry  divi- 
sions of  Generals  Hooker  and  Kearney.  The  Confederates  had 
another  line  of  works  across  the  Peninsula  at  Williamsburg, 
the  principal  part  of  which  was  called  Fort  Magruder.  Stone- 
man's  advance  was  stopped  by  these  works,  and  he  was  obliged 
to  wait  for  the  infantry  to  come  up.  Heavy  rain  was  falling, 
and  the  roads  were  very  muddy,  but  Hooker  pressed  on,  and 
attacked  the  Confederates  early  in  the  morning  of  May  5.  Gen- 
eral Johnston  had  not  intended  to  try  to  hold  this  line,  but 
finding  himself  closely  pursued,  turned  back  part  of  his  forces, 
under  General  Longstreet,  to  check  McClellan  until  the  main 
body  and  the  baggage  trains  could  cross  the  Chickahominy. 
Hooker  fought  against  superior  numbers 
until  late  in  the  afternoon.  At  last  Kearney's 
division  came  up  and  allowed  Hooker,  who 
had  lost  seventeen  hundred  men  and  was 
out  of  ammunition,  to  retire.  In  the 
meantime  General  Sumner,  who  was  the 
commanding  officer  in  the  field,  had  sent  i|(fi| 
General  Hancock  with  his  brigade  far  to  the  m\ 
right,   where    he   took    a    strong   position  Torpedo. 

which  commanded  the  rear  of  the  Confederate  lines.  As 
soon  as  this  was  found  out  by  the  enemy  he  was  attacked,  but 
he  repulsed  them  gallantly,  and  at  evening  was  strongly  rein- 
forced. The  Confederates,  having  held  their  works  long  enough 
to  save  their  baggage  trains,  left  during  the  night,  and  marched 
toward  the  Chickahominy.  The  total  Union  loss  during  this 
fight,  Avhich  is  commonly  called  the  battle  of  Williamsburg,  was 
more  than  two  thousand;  that  of  the  Confederates  about  eighteen 
hundred. 

General  McClellan  had  remained  during  this  advance  at 
Yorktown,  making  preparations  to  send  General  Franklin's 
division  up  the  York  Eiver  to  West  Point.  This  was  part  of 
McDowell's  corps,  which  had  finally  been  sent  to  him  at  his 
earnest  request.     He  was  left  in  ignorance  that  an  important 


250 


PENINSULA   CAMPAIGN. 


[1862. 


fight  was  going  on  at  the  front  until  one  o'clock,  when  he  went 
to  the  field  and  promptly  reinforced  Hancock.  On  the  next 
morning  Fort  Magruder  and  Williamsburg  were  occupied;  and 
in  a  few  days  the  army  moved  forward  both  from  that  place 
and  from  West  Point,  which  had  been  taken  possession  of  and 
made  the  general  landing-place  of  supplies.  The  roads  were 
very  muddy,  and  it  was  not  until  the  20th  of  May  that  the  ad- 
vance reached  the  banks  of  the  Chickahominy.  Meanwhile 
two  new  army  corps  had  been  formed — the  Fifth,  under  com 
mand  of  General  Fitz  John  Porter,  and  the  Sixth,  under  Gen- 
eral William  B.  Franklin. 

General  Johnston  had  crossed  the  Chickahominy,  meanwhile, 
and  taken  a  position  about  three  miles  from  Richmond,  where 

a  strong  line  of  fortifica- 
tions had  been  thrown 
up.  By  his  advice  the 
Confederates  evacuated 
Norfolk,  after  removing 
the  stores  and  burning 
the  dock-yards,  and  the 
troops  there  were  added 
to  his  army.  As  soon 
as  the  news  reached  Gen- 
eral Wool,  commanding 
at  Fortress  Monroe,  he 
sent  up  some  troops  and  . 
took  possession  of  the  place.  The  Merrimack  had  been  ordered 
to  go  up  the  James  River  to  aid  in  the  defence  of  Richmond, 
but  she  drew  too  much  water  and  was  blown  up,  May  11,  by 
order  of  her  commander,  Commodore  Tatnall.  This  relieved 
the  Union  fleet  from  any  more  fears  on  her  account,  and  sev- 
eral vessels,  under  command  of  Commodore  John  Rodgers,  at 
once  moved  up  the  James.  The  flag-ship  of  the  squadron  was 
the  iron-clad  Galena,  and  she  was  accompanied  by  the  Monitor, 
Aroostook,  Port  Royal,  and  Naugatuck.  As  there  were  sup- 
posed to  be  many  batteries  along  the  banks,  the  vessels  moved 
with  great  caution,  a  strict  watch  being  kept  from  an  armored 
lookout  at  the  mast-head  of  the  leading  vessel.  This  lookout 
was  a  kind  of  square  box,  made  of  iron  plates  thick  enough  to 
protect  the  man  in  it  from  rifle  balls.     But  the  vessels  met 


Armored  Lookout. 


1862.] 


PANIC  IN  RICHMOND. 


251 


with  no  obstructions  until  they  reached  Drury's  Bluff,  about 
eight  miles  below  Richmond,  where  the  river  bank  is  nearly  two 
hundred  feet  high.  There  they  were  stopped  by  a  barrier  across 
the  river  made  of  sunken  vessels,  held  in  place  by  piles,  and  de- 
fended by  a  strong  work  called  Fort  Darling  on  the  top  of  the 
bluff,  and  by  rifle-pits  along  the  banks.  The  vessels  opened 
fire  on  the  morning  of  May  15,  but  the  Confederate  batteries 
were  too  high  to  be  reached  by  the  Monitor's  guns,  and  about 
noon,  the  Galena  having  been  badly  damaged  and  the  Nanga- 
tuck  disabled  by  the  bursting  of  one  of  her  guns,  Commodore 
Rodgers  withdrew,  and  went  down  the  river  to  City  Point. 

The  advance  of  the  fleet  up  the  James  and  the  arrival  of 
McClellans  army  on  the  Chickahominy  caused  the  greatest 
fear  in  Richmond.  Most  of  the  people  believed  that  the  city 
would  fall  within  a  few  days,  and  the  Confederate  authorities 
sent  away  the  government  records  and  made  preparations  to 
leave.  The  stores  and  shops  were  ordered  to  be  closed  at  two 
o'clock  each  afternoon,  to  gjve  time  for  all  able-bodied  men  to 
drill.  The  streets  were  filled  with  anxious  women  and  children, 
and  many  got  ready  to  go  into  the  country  at  the  approach  of 
danger. 


Snare  Drum. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
SHENANDOAH  VALLEY.— CHICKAHOMINY. 

McDowell  at  Fredericksburg.— Porter  at  Hanover  Court-House.— McDowell  Or- 
dered to  WASHINGTON.— Stonewall  Jackson.— Jackson  or  a  Rabbit.— Jackson's 
Praters.— Bankc  Driven  into  Maryland.— Jackson  Repulses  Fremont.— Defeats 
Shields.— Turner  ashby.— a  Gallant  Deed.— Floods  in  the  .Chickahominy.— The 
Union  Army  Divided.  -Seven  Pines  and  Fair  Oaks.— General  Johnston  Wounded.— 
Robert  E.  Lee  in  Cgmmamd  of  the  Confederates.— The  Swamps  of  the  Chickahom- 
iny.— BALLOONS     IN     WaR  -  HOW    ARE    YEES,     BYES  ?— JEB     STUART.— THE     RIDE    AROUND 

McClellan.— White  Housu.— Washington's  Marriage.— Stonewall  Jackson  and  the 
Farmer. 

WHEN  General  McClellan's  advance  reached  the  Chicka- 
hominy, General  McDowell,  with  about  forty  thousand 
men,  was  at  Fredericksburg,  on  the  Rappahannock  River, 
where  he  could  either  protect  Washington  or  move  against  Rich- 
mond. McClellan,  who  believed  Washington  to  be  in  no  danger, 
had  often  asked  to  have  this  force  sent  to  him  by  water.  If 
that  had  been  done  he  could  have  moved  against  Richmond, 
after  leaving  Williamsburg,  up  the  James  River,  where  the  gun- 
boats could  aid  him,  and  where  he  could  assist  the  gunboats  in 
taking  Fort  Darling.  At  last  the  President  ordered  McDowell 
to  march  and  join  McClellan,  not  in  the  way  he  wanted,  but 
by  land,  following  the  line  of  the  railroad  from  Fredericksburg. 
This  obliged  McClellan  to  go  up  the  York,  instead  of  the  James 
River,  because  the  latter  would  have  been  too  far  away  from 
McDowell.  At  this  time  McClellan  had,  according  to  his  own 
report,  about  eighty  thousand  men  fit  for  action.  He  was  very 
anxious  to  receive  McDowell's  reinforcement,  because  he  be- 
lieved that  the  Confederates  had  a  larger  force  than  his*  own 
and  were  defended  by  strong  earthworks.  Hearing  that  a  strong 
body  of  Confederates  was  at  Hanover  Court  House,  and  fearing 
that  it  would  interfere  with  McDowell's  advance,  he  sent  Por- 
ter's corps  (May  27)  to  attack  it.  Porter  drove  this  force  from 
its  position  and  destroyed  its  camp,  inflicting  considerable  loss 
upon  it  in  dead  and  wounded,  and  capturing  more  than  seven 
hundred  prisoners.  The  way  was  thus  cleared  for  McDowell's 
junction  with  the  army,  but  after  that  general  had  started  from 
Fredericksburg  news  was  received  in  Washington  that  General 


1862.] 


STONEWALL  JACKSON. 


259 


Banks  had  been  defeated  by  Stonewall  Jackson  in  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley,  and  the  President,  fearful  that  Jackson  would 
move  against  Washington,  stopped  McDowell  and  ordered  him 
to  turn  back. 

Let  us  pause  a  moment  to  look  at  Stonewall  Jackson,  who 
soon  afterward  became  one  of  the  foremost  figures  in  the  war. 
Thomas  Jonathan  Jackson  was  born  a  poor  boy  in  Clarksburg, 
Virginia,  and  managed  in  some  way  to  get  to  West  Point,  where 
he  was  graduated  in  1846.  He  served  bravely  in  the  war  in 
Mexico,  and  became  a  captain  and  finally  a  major  for  gallant 
conduct.  In  1852  he  resigned  from  the  army  and  became  a 
professor  in  the  Virginia  Military  Academy  in  Lexington.  There 
he  became  a  deacon  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  was  noted 
for  his  piety  and  for  his  shyness  and  eccentricity.  He  was  so 
awkward  and  absent-minded  that 
he  was  the  laughing-stock  of  the 
students,  who  nicknamed  him 
"  Fool  Tom  Jackson."  In  April, 
1861,  he  became  colonel  of  a  vol- 
unteer regiment  and  went  to  Har- 
per's Ferry.  All  at  once  he 
seemed  to  find  out  what  he  was 
made  for,  and  the  awkward, 
absent-minded  Tom  Jackson 
showed  such  aptness  for  com- 
mand that  he  soon  became  a 
brigadier-general.  As  such  lie 
took  part  in  the  battle  of  Bull 
Run,  and  saved  the  day  by  his  firmness,  winning  the  now 
famous  name  of  "  Stonewall,"  which  will  live  in  history  as  long 
as  the  world  lasts. 

Stonewall  Jackson  soon  became  the  idol  of  his  men,  and 
whenever  he  appeared  among  them  he  was  always  received  with 
cheers.  When  a  distant  yell  was  heard  in  camp,  men  would 
say,  "That's  Jackson  or  a  rabbit!"  both  being  generally  re- 
ceived by  the  soldiers  with  equal  delight.  He  was  a  man  of 
few  words,  but  when  he  was  in  the  society  of  elderly  ladies  or  of 
clergymen  he  would  talk  by  the  hour  on  religious  subjects.  It 
was  his  custom  to  pray  often,  and  always  when  about  to  enter 
upon  any  duty,  especially  before  battle.     His  black  body-ser- 


"  Stonewall"  Jackson. 


254  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY.— CHICKAHOMINY.        [1862. 

vant,  who  had  closely  noted  his  habits,  generally  knew  what  to 
expect  when  he  saw  his  master  more  devotional  than  usual,  and 
made  his  preparations  accordingly.  A  gentleman  once  asked 
him  if  he  could  tell  by  his  master's  habits  when  a  battle  was 
coming  off. 

"  Oh  yes,  sir,"  he  replied;  "the  general  is  a  great  man  for 
praying — night  and  morning,  and  all  times.  But  when  I  see 
him  get  up  several  times  in  the  night  besides  to  go  off  and  pray, 
then  I  know  there  is  going  to  be  something  to  pay;  and  I  go 
straight  and  pack  his  haversack,  because  I  know  he  will  call  for 
it  in  the  morning."  * 

After  Stonewall  Jackson's  repulse  by  General  Shields  he  had 
retreated  up  the  Valley,  where  he  was  soon  reinforced  by  Gen- 
erals Ewell  and  Edward  Johnson,  increasing  his  army  to  about 
fifteen  thousand  men.  General  Banks,  who  was  in  command 
of  the  Department  of  the  Shenandoah,  was  at  Harrisonburg 
with  about  six  thousand  men.  General  Milroy,  with  a  small 
force  from  Fremont's  army,  had  crossed  the  mountains  into  the 
Valley  and  was  moving  toward  Banks.  Jackson  sent  part  of 
his  force  against  Milroy,  defeated  him  at  a  place  called  McDow- 
ell, and  then  marched  against  Banks,  who  had  retreated  to 
Strasburg,  followed  by  Ewell.  Banks  fell  back  hastily  to  Win- 
chester, near  which  he  made  a  stand,  but  was  put  to  flight  again 
and  driven  across  the  Potomac  into  Maryland,  leaving  about 
two  thousand  prisoners  in  the  enemy's  hands. 

General  McClellan  telegraphed  to  the  President  that  the 
object  of  Jackson's  move  was  probably  to  prevent  reinforcements 
being  sent  to  him,  but  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  advisers  were  sure 
it  was  a  movement  against  Washington,  and  ordered  McDowell 
to  send  half  his  force  under  Shields  to  the  Shenandoah  Valley 
to  act  with  Fremont  against  Jackson,  and  another  portion  to 
Harper's  Ferry.  McDowell  obeyed  with  a  heavy  heart,  for  he 
felt  that  this  new  movement  would  spoil  McClellan's  plans  and 
result  in  the  failure  of  the  operations  against  Bichmond.  As 
he  expected,  he  was  too  late  to  catch  Jackson,  who  escaped  be- 
tween Shields  and  Fremont  and  returned  up  the  Valley  again. 
The  Union  forces  pursued,  and  Jackson,  watching  his  chances, 
turned  and  repulsed  Fremont  (June  7)  at  Cross  Keys,  and  de- 

*  See  Appendix,  page  566. 


1862.]  TURNER  ASHBY.  255 

feated  Shields  (June  8)  at  Port  Republic,  capturing  his  artillery 
and  many  prisoners.  Fremont  then  retreated  down  the  Valley, 
and  Jackson,  having  accomplished  his  purpose  of  preventing 
troops  being  sent  to  McClellan,  soon  marched  to  Richmond  to 
take  part  in  the  great  battles  around  that  city. 

The  Confederates  met  with  a  severe  loss  in  the  battle  of  Port 
Republic  in  the  death  of  General  Ashby,  the  commander  of 
Stonewall  Jackson's  cavalry.  Turner  Ashby  was  a  Virginian 
who  believed  in  his  native  State  above  all  other  things  on  earth. 
When  he  went  to  Harper's  Ferry  in  1861  as  a  member  of  his 
brother  Richard's  cavalry  company,  some  one  said  to  him: 
"  What  flag  are  we  going  to  fight  under,  Ashby?  the  Palmetto?" 

"  This  is  the  flag  I  intend  to  fight  under,"  replied  Ashby, 
taking  off  his  hat  and  showing  inside  of  it  a  small  piece  of  silk 
stamped  with  the  arms  of  Virginia. 

His  brother  Richard  was  killed  early  in  the  war,  and  Turner 
succeeded  to  the  command  of  the  company.  He  had  loved  his 
brother  dearly,  and  after  his  death  he  seemed  like  another  man. 
He  was  in  the  saddle  night  and  day,  now  in  one  place  watching 
the  enemy,  the  next  day  many  miles  away  cutting  off  some  de- 
tachment or  supply  train.  He  always  rode  a  white  horse,  and 
wherever  that  horse  was  seen  men  knew  that  there  was  work  to 
do.  When  Jackson  retreated  from  Winchester,  Ashby,  then  a 
colonel  in  command  of  the  cavalry,  was  the  last  to  leave.  As 
the  Union  cavalry  rode  into  the  town,  he  was  seen  riding  alone 
down  the  street  as  calmly  as  if  no  enemies  were  near.  He 
waited  until  the  pursuers  fired  on  him  and  then  galloped  off, 
waving  his  hat  in  defiance.  All  at  once  two  cavalrymen,  who 
had  been  sent  round  by  the  back  streets  to  cut  him  off,  appeared 
in  front  of  him;  but  Ashby  charged  them,  shot  one  with  his 
pistol,  and  seizing  the  other  by  the  throat  dragged  him  from 
the  saddle  and  carried  him  off  before  the  eyes  of  the  advancing 
cavalry. 

When  Shields  and  Fremont  were  pressing  hard  upon  Jack- 
son in  his  retreat  down  the  Valley,  Ashby  held  the  rear  with  his 
cavalry  and  horse  artillery.  While  falling  back  one  day  near 
New  Market,  with  the  Union  cavalry  hard  upon  him,  his  fa- 
mous white  horse  was  mortally  wounded  by  a  bullet.  His  men 
looked  upon  this  as  a  bad  omen,  and  so  it  turned  out  to  be,  for 
Ashby  survived  him  but  a  few  days.  .  His  last  cavalry  fight  was 


256 


SHENANDOAH  VALLEY.— CHICKAHOMINY. 


[1862 


just  before  the  battle  of  Cross  Keys,  when  he  captured  Colonel 
Percy  Wyndham,  of  Fremont's  cavalry,  and  sixty-three  of  his 
men.  Shortly  after,  while  leading  the  Fifty-eighth  Virginia  in 
a  charge,  his  horse  was  shot  under  him.  He  sprang  to  his  feet, 
and  waving  his  sword,  shouted,  "  Virginians,  charge!"  At  that 
moment  a  bullet  pierced  his  breast  and  he  fell  dead.  The  Con- 
federates greatly  mourned  his  loss  as  one  of  the  best  and  most 
fearless  of  their  cavalry  leaders. 

By  the  25th  of  May,  just  before  McDowell's  corps  was  or- 
dered back,  McClellan  had  crossed  the  Chickahominy  with  two 
corps,  under  Keyes  and  Heintzelman.  The  Chickahominy  rises 
in  the  highlands  northwest  of  Richmond,  and  flowing  in  a  gene- 
ral southeasterly  direction 
at  last  turns  south  and 
empties  into  the  James. 
Its  course  around  Rich- 
mond is  through  a  heavily 
wooded  swamp.  In  dry 
seasons  it  is  little  more 
than  a  brook,  but  in  wet 
weather  it  overflows  its 
banks  and  floods  all  the 
swamp  and  bottom  land 
which  border  it.  McClel- 
lan at  once  began  to  bridge 
the  stream  and  to  build 
log  roads  to  move  his  artil- 
lery through  the  swamps, 
but  heavy  rains  came  on  and  raised  the  water  to  a  greater 
height  than  had  been  known  for  twenty  years.  The  bridges 
built  were  carried  away  and  others  had  to  be  constructed,  higher 
and  stronger  than  the  first.  This  took  much  time,  and  mean- 
Avhile,  the  remainder  of  the  army  being  prevented  by  the  flood 
from  crossing,  the  two  corps  on  the  Richmond  side  were  in 
much  danger  of  being  cut  off  by  the  enemy. 

General  Johnston,  seeing  McClellan's  error  in  thus  dividing 
his  army,  prepared,  on  the  morning  of  May  31,  to  attack  Keyes 
and  Heintzelman,  in  hope  of  defeating  them  before  McClellan 
could  get  his  other  men  across  the  Chickahominy.  But  rain 
fell  all  night  and  made  the  roads  so  muddy  that  the  movement 


Samuel  P.  Heintzelman. 


1862.]  BATTLE  OF  FAIR  OAKS.  257 

could  not  be  made  until  afternoon.  The  first  division  of 
Keyes's  corps,  commanded  by  General  Casey,  was  stationed 
about  six  miles  from  Kichmond,  on  the  Williamsburg  road,  in 
front  of  Seven  Pines,  a  country  tavern  near  seven  large  pine 
trees;  and  Couch's  division  of  the  same  corps  was  at  Seven 
Pines  and  Fair  Oaks,  the  latter  a  station  on  the  Richmond  and 
York  River  Railroad.  Generals  Longstreet  and  D.  H.  Hill 
attacked  Casey  with  a  largely  superior  force,  and  after  a  severe 
fight  drove  him  back,  capturing  six  of  his  guns.  Casey's  dis- 
ordered troops  fell  back  upon  Couch's  line  at  Seven  Pines, 
where  a  stand  was  made.  Some  time  after  four  o'clock,  part  of 
Kearney's  division  of  Heintzelman's  corps  came  to  their  aid, 
but  the  Confederates  again  broke  their  lines  and  drove  them 
back  more  than  a  mile,  when  night  finally  ended  the  fight. 

In  the  meantime  General  Couch  had  moved  toward  Fair  Oaks 
to  attack  the  Confederates  on  their  left.  To  his  surprise  he  was 
met  by  large  bodies  of  fresh  troops,  who  attacked  him  fiercely 
and  cut  him  off  from  the  main  body  of  his  division  at  Seven 
Pines.  These  were  the  troo|:)S  of  General  G.  W.  Smith,  and 
General  Johnston  himself  was  with  them.  It  seemed  then  as  if 
the  Confederates  would  succeed  in  destroying  or  capturing  the 
whole  of  the  army  on  that  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  but  when 
Conch  was  hardest  pressed  another  force  came  into  the  field. 
General  Sumner,  whose  corps  lay  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
river,  had  succeeded  in  getting  part  of  it  over  by  means  of  two 
scarcely  finished  bridges,  and  about  six  o'clock  the  division  of 
General  John  Sedgwick  reached  a  place  near  Fair  Oaks  where 
Couch  was  struggling  hard  to  hold  the  enemy  back.  The  Con- 
federates made  several  desperate  attempts  to  break  the  line,  but 
were  each  time  repulsed,  and  at  last  General  Sumner  ordered  a 
charge,  and  they  were  forced  back  in  confusion.  This  saved 
the  day  and  the  army,  for  night  then  put  an  end  to  the  fight- 
ing at  this  place  also. 

About  seven  o'clock  General  Johnston  was  wounded  by  a 
musket-ball  in  the  right  shoulder,  and  a  few  minutes  afterward 
a  large  piece  of.  a  shell  struck  him  in  the  breast  and  knocked 
him  from  his  horse.  He  was  carried  from  the  field  in  an  am- 
bulance, and  the  command  of  the  army  fell  to  Major-General 
G.  W.  Smith.  The  two  armies  occupied  their  positions  during 
the  next  day  (Sunday).     An  attack  was  made  on  part  of  Hill's 


258 


SEENAKDOAU   VALLEY.— CHICK AIIOAIINY.        [1862. 


line  in  the  morning  by  some  of  the  Union  troops,  but  it  was 
repulsed,  and  Hill's  men  picked  up  and  removed  from  the  field 
nearly  seven  thousand  muskets  and  rifles,  and  a  large  quantity 
of  tents  and  stores.  At  noon  of  Sunday,  General  Eobert  E. 
Lee  was  appointed  commander  of  the  Army  of  Northern  tVir- 
ginia,  and  on  Monday  morning  the  troops  were  all  marched 
back  to  their  camps  near  Richmond.  This  battle,  which  was 
claimed  as  a  victory  by  both  parties,  was  called  by  the  Confed- 
erates Seven  Pines,  and  by  the  Unionists  Fair  Oaks;  but  there 
were  really  two  separate  engagements,  the  one  at  Seven  Pines 
being  a  Confederate  success,  and  that  at  Fair  Oaks  a  Union  suc- 
cess.    The  loss  of  the  two  in  the  double  battle  was  about  equal, 

each  having  nearly  seven 
thousand  killed,  wound- 
ed, and  missing.  Among 
the  Union  wounded  at 
Fair  Oaks  was  General 
0.  0.  Howard,  who  lost 
his  right  arm.  As  he 
was  being  carried  from 
the  field  he  called  out  to 
General  Kearney,  who 
had  no  left  arm,  "  Kear- 
ney, we'll  buy  our  gloves 
together!" 

The  first  successful  ex- 
periment of  telegraphing 
from  a  balloon  was  made 
during  this  battle.  It  had  been  tried  near  Washington  the 
summer  before,  but,  although  the  newspapers  were  filled  with 
accounts  of  the  "wonderful  experiment,"  it  was  almost  a  failure. 
This  time,  however,  Professor  Lowe,  who  had  charge  of  the 
army  balloons,  succeeded  in  sending  messages  during  the  battle 
from  his  balloon  when  more  than  a  third  of  a  mile  above  the 
heads  of  the  enemy.  From  that  height  he  could  see  the  Con- 
federate columns  moving  to  the  attack,  the  smoke  and  confusion 
of  the  battle,  and  the  long  lines  of  ambulances,  wagons,  and 
carts  carrying  the  dead  and  wounded  into  Richmond,  the  streets 
and  houses  of  which  were  plainly  visible  in  the  distance.  Bal- 
loons were  much  used  during  McClellan's  campaign,  but  after- 


Robert  E.  Lee. 


1862.] 


WAR  BALLOONS. 


259 


ward  they  fell  into  disuse.  They  were  kept  in  position  by 
means  of  a  strong  cable  held  by  men,  though  sometimes  several 
cables  were  used,  as  shown  in  the  picture.  One  day,  when 
General  Fitz  John  Porter  was  watching  the  enemy  from  a  bal- 
loon, the  cable  broke  and  he  was  carried  by  the  wind  over  the 
Confederate  lines.  By  pulling  the  valve-string  he 
let  out  some  of  the  gas,  and  the  balloon  coming- 
down  into  a  current  of  air  blowing  the  other  way, 
he  landed  safe  within  the  Union  lines. 

After  this  General  McClellan  remained  in  the 
swamps  of  the  Chickahominy  nearly  a  month,  repair- 
ing his  bridges  and  making  ready  to  move  forward. 
Bain  fell  frequently  and  the  whole  of  the  bottom 
lands  were  flooded  three  or  four  feet  deep.     On 
the  15th  of  June  he  had  with  him  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  thousand  men  fit  for  duty,  but  he  was 
still  undecided  when  to  move.     During  all  this 
time  the  pickets  of   the  two  armies  were  often 
so  near  as  to  talk  together.     Although  gener- 
ally ready  to  shoot  each  other  at  sight,  they 
often  mutually  agreed  to  sto})  hostilities  for  a 
time,  and  to  meet  on  neutral  ground  be- 
tween the  lines  to  exchange  newspapers  or 
to  talk  over  the  war  and  the 
prospects     of     peace.       Some   ^m 
funny  stories  are  told  of  these  %  y  . 

picket  interviews.  On  one  :„;_  ^  , ■'.".  '<- 
occasion,  while  the  army  was 
lying  in  the  Chickahominy 
swamps,  some  Union  pickets'! 
were  cooking  their  breakfast, : 
when  they  were  startled  by  a 
voice  near  by: 

"  Hoav  are  yees,  byes  ?" 

The  men  looked  up  and 
saw  peeping  over  the  bushes  the  face  of  a  jolly-looking  Irish- 
man, enlivened  by  a  broad  grin  which  stretched  his  mouth 
almost  from  ear  to  ear. 

"  An'  what  are  yees  afther  doin',  gintlemen?" 

"  Making  coffee.     Have  some?" 


Army  Balloon. 


260  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY.— CHICKAHOHINY.        [1862. 

"  Yees  won't  be  afther  shootin'  or  captivatin'  me?"  asked 
Pat,  with  a  glance  at  their  guns  hard  by. 

"Not  a  bit  of  it.     Comedown." 

"  By  me  sowl,  an'  it's  very  temptin'  ye  are,"  he  replied,  step- 
ping from  behind  the  bushes,  and  showing  one  of  the  raggedest 
specimens  of  a  Butternut  the  well-clad  Union  men  had  ever 
put  eyes  on.  "Its  ilegant  manners  ye've  got  intoirely;  an'  it's 
meself  that  likes  the  company  of  gintlemen  as  can  affoord  to 
have  their  bite  an'  their  sup  of  the  caw-fy  ivery  day.  Sure  an' 
it's  beautiful  that  yees  make  it." 

"  Well,  take  another  cup." 

"  An'  I  jist  will.  Sure  it's  splendid  caw-fy.  The  ribbles — 
bad  cess  to  them!  (lowering  his  voice  to  a  confidential  whisper) 
— don't  give  me  a  taste  of  the  stuff." 

"  Well,  take  another  cup." 

"  Yees  won't  call  it  bad  manners  if  I  do?  Sure  an'  ye're  so 
polite.  Ye  seem  to  be  comfortable  intoirely — ye've  ilegant 
clothes  an'  the  hoight  of  good  livin'." 

"That's  so." 

"  Well,  byes  (with  an  insinuating  smile),  I  belave  I'll  stay  by 
the  caw-fy  and  quit  the  ribbles  intoirely." 

Pat  was  as  good  as  his  word:  he  stayed  by  the  "  caw-fy  "  and 
the  Union  and  proved  himself  a  good  soldier. 

In  the  meantime  General  Lee  had  been  largely  reinforced  by 
troops  from  Georgia,  North  Carolina,  and  South  Carolina,  so 
that  he  had  under  him  then  about  eighty  thousand  effective 
men.  He  determined  not  to  wait  for  McClellan  to  advance, 
but  to  attack  him  where  he  was.  McClellan  had  all  this  time 
been  throwing  up  earthworks,  and  Lee,  desiring  to  know  how 
far  these  extended,  sent  General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  with  a  body 
of  cavalry,  to  find  out. 

Stuart,  the  most  famous  of  the  Confederate  cavalry  leaders, 
was  familiarly  called  by  his  classmates  at  West  Point  Jeb  Stuart. 
When  his  native  State,  Virginia,  seceded,  he  resigned  his  posi- 
tion as  first  lieutenant  in  the  United  States  army,  and  soon 
became  a  colonel  of  cavalry  in  the  Confederate  army.  He  was 
only  twenty-seven  years  old  at  the  time,  and  full  of  youthful 
enthusiasm.  Indeed,  he  was  always  a  boy,  ready  for  fun  and 
mischief,  or  for  reckless  adventure,  who  looked  upon  war  as  an 
exciting  game,  never  giving  a  thought  to  the  bitter  side  of  the 


1862.] 


JEB  STUART. 


261 


question.  While  other  leaders  dressed  soberly,  as  befitting  the 
times,  Stuart  wore  the  gayest  of  costumes:  his  gray  uniform 
was  resplendent  with  buttons  and  gold  braid,  his  brown  felt  hat 
was  looped  up  with  a  golden  star  and  ornamented  with  a  black 
ostrich  plume,  his  waist  was  bound  with  a  yellow  silken  sash, 
his  buff  gauntlets  reached  to  the  elbow,  and  his  spurs  were  of 
pure  gold.  Stuart  loved  horses  and  dogs:  he  was  always  well 
mounted,  and  gave  his  steeds  fanciful  names,  such  as  Skylark 
and  Star  of  the  East,  and  his  two  setters,  Nip  and  Tuck,  shared 
his  tent  and  his  rations.  He  had  a  great  love  for  music,  and 
kept  with  him,  whether  in  tent  or  field,  a  banjo  player,  who 
was  frequently  called  upon   to  strum  his  instrument,    Stuart 

himself  often  joining  in 
the  chorus  with  uproari- 
ous merriment.  Many 
people  thought  this  was 
undignified,  but  Stuart 
never  played  until  busi- 
ness was  done,  and  no 
one  could  complain  that 
he  ever  shirked  a  duty 
for  pleasure.  John  Es- 
ten  Cooke,  a  Virginian 
writer,  tells  of  him  that 
he  never  drank  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  never  ut- 
tered an  oath,  nor  per- 
mitted any  profanity  at 
his  quarters,  and  carried  his  mother's  Bible  on  his  person 
Avherever  he  went. 

Such  was  the  man  whom  General  Lee  chose  for  this  danger- 
ous duty,  afterward  known  as  the  "ride  around  McClellan." 
Stuart  started  on  the  night  of  June  12,  with  twelve  hundred 
cavalry  and  two  pieces  of  horse  artillery.  He  rode  north  from 
Eichmond,  and  swept  round  in  McClellan's  rear  until  he  reached 
Hanover  Old  Church,  where  he  dispersed  some  Union  cavalry 
and  burned  their  camp,  losing  one  of  his  captains  in  the  fight. 
This  was  as  far  as  General  Lee  had  ordered  him  to  go,  but  the 
alarm  had  been  given  and  he  was  confident  that  a  large  force 
would  be  sent  to  cut  him  off.     Stuart  saw  only  one  way  of  es- 


J.  E.  B.  Stuart. 


262  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY.— CHICEAHOMINT.        [1862. 

cape — to  ride  entirely  round  MeClellan's  army,  running  the 
risk  of  meeting  large  bodies  of  the  enemy.  A  friend  afterward 
said  to  him:  "If  the  enemy  had  come  down  on  you,  you  would 
have  had  to  surrender." 

"  0  no,"  he  replied,  "there  was  one  other  course  left." 

"What  was  that?" 

"To  die  game." 

His  mind  once  made  up,  Stuart  rode  on,  burning  wagons 
and  army  stores  and  capturing  prisoners  and  horses,  until  at 
last  the  Chickahominy  was  reached  below  MeClellan's  lines. 
But  the  river  was  flooded  and  the  ford  where  he  hoped  to  cross 
was  impassable.  The  enemy  were  expected  behind  every 
minute,  and  no  time  was  to  be  lost.  The  men  were  half  dead 
for  want  of  sleep,  for  they  had  ridden  all  night  long,  but 
Stuart,  never  despairing,  turned  the  column  down  stream,  where 
there  was  an  old  bridge.  Alas!  the  bridge  was  gone,  and  only 
the  stone  abutments  were  left  to  show  where  it  had  been.  An 
old  store-house  stood  near.  Stuart  ordered  it  torn  down,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  the  men  were  laying  its  beams  on  the  abut- 
ments and  covering  them  with  its  planks,  the  General  himself 
working  as  hard  as  any  one.  Thus  a  bridge  strong  enough  for 
the  horses  and  artillery  was  built  and  the  stream  safely  crossed. 
Just  as  the  rear  guard  disappeared  in  the  swamp  on  the  other 
side,  a  body  of  mounted  "blue-birds,"  as  the  Confederates 
sometimes  called  the  Union  troops,  galloped  down  to  the  bank 
of  the  river  and  gave  the  "gray-backs"  a  parting  salute  with 
their  rifles.  But  Stuart  had  escaped,  and  on  Sunday  night, 
June  15,  he  reached  Richmond  and  gave  General  Lee  valuable 
information  which  resulted  in  his  attacking  General  McClellan 
on  the  north  side  of  the  Chickahominy. 

Lee's  idea  in  crossing  the  river  was  to  cut  off  McClellan 
from  his  base  of  supplies.  The  reader  will  remember  that  the 
expectation  of  being  joined  by  General  McDowell  from  Freder- 
icksburg had  caused  McClellan  to  make  his  depot  of  supplies  at 
West  Point,  on  the  York  Eiver.  This  was  afterward  changed 
to  White  House,  a  place  further  up,  on  the  Pamunkey  River, 
and  on  the  line  of  the  Richmond  and  York  River  Railroad. 
This  place  was  so  called  from  the  White  House,  the  home  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war  of  part  of  the  family  of  General  Lee. 
It  stood  on  the  site  of  a  dwelling  of  the  same  name  in  which 


1862.]  STONEWALL  JACKSON.  263 

once  lived  Mrs.  Martha  Custis,  afterward  Mrs.  George  Wash- 
ington, and  the  marriage  of  the  illustrious  pair  took  place 
beneath  its  roof.  Mrs.  Robert  E.  Lee,  who  was  the  great- 
granddaughter  of  Mrs.  Washington,  left  the  White  House  on 
the  approach  of  the  Union  army.  McClellan  had  gathered  at 
this  place  great  quantities  of  provisions  and  ammunition,  which 
were  Qarried  from  there  to  the  Chickahominy  in  wagons.  It 
was  some  of  the  wagons  engaged  in  this  work  which  Stuart 
had  burned  in  his  raid,  and  Lee  saw  that  if  he  could  cut  off 
McClellan  entirely  from  White  House,  he  would  have  him  at 
his  mercy. 

To  deceive  the  authorities  at  Washington,  and  to  keep  them 
from  sending  troops  to  McClellan,  General  Lee  sent  reinforce- 
ments to  Jackson,  taking  care  to  let  it  be  known;  but  at  the 
same  time  he  ordered  Jackson  to  march  as  rapidly  as  possible 
to  his  aid,  and  before  it  was  known  that  he  had  left  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley,  Jackson  had  reached  Ashland,  twelve  miles  from 
Richmond,  with  twenty-five  thousand  men.  This  brought 
General  Lee's  forces  up  to  about  ninety  thousand  men,  or  not 
quite  as  many  as  in  the  Union  army  arrayed  against  him. 

Stonewall  Jackson's  victories  in  the  Valley  had  won  him 
great  renown  and  everybody  was  anxious  to  see  him,  but  he  was 
so  modest  and  retiring  in  his  habits  that  he  shunned  the  public 
gaze;  and  his  dress  was  generally  so  shabby  that  many  did  not 
know  him  even  when  he  did  appear  riding  awkwardly  along  on 
his  old  sorrel  horse.  It  is  said  that  once,  about  the  time  he 
joined  Lee's  army,  he  was  riding  with  some  of  his  officers 
through  a  field  of  oats.  The  owner,  seeing  the  trespassers,  ran 
after  them  in  a  rage,  and  angrily  addressing  Jackson  demanded 
his  name,  that  he  might  report  him  at  headquarters. 

"Jackson  is  my  name,  sir,"  replied  the  general  quietly. 

"What  Jackson?"  inquired  the  farmer. 

"  General  Jackson." 

"What!  Stonewall  Jackson!"  exclaimed  the  man  in  aston- 
ishment. 

"  That  is  what  they  call  me,"  replied  Jackson. 

"  General,"  said  the  man,  taking  off  his  hat,  "ride  over  my 
whole  field.     Do  whatever  you  like  with  it,  sir." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
SEVEN  DAYS'  FIGHT. 

Lee  Attacks  McClellan.— Beaver  Dam  Creek.— Battle  of  Mechanicsville.— A  Change 
of  Base.— Battle  of  Gaines's  Mills.— General  McCall's  Escape.— McClellan's  Re- 
treat to  the  James  River.— The  White  Oak  Swamp.— Battle  of  Savage's  Station. — 
Battle  of  Frazier's  Farm. — McCall  a  Prisoner.— Battle  of  Malvern  Hill.— McClel- 
lan at  Harrison's  Landing.— End  of  the  Seven  Days'  Fight.— Departure  of  the 
French  Prlnces.— President  Lincoln  Visits  McClellan.— Three  Hundred  Thousand 
More  Volunteers. 

S  soon  as  Jackson  arrived,  General  Lee,  leaving  about 
twenty-eight  thousand  men,  under  Magruder  and  Huger, 
to  guard  the  defences  around  Richmond,  crossed  the  Chicka- 
hominy  above  McClellan's  army,  with  about  thirty-five  thousand 
men  under  the  two  Hills  and  Longstreet.  His  plan  was  to  join 
Jackson,  which  would  increase  his  force  to  sixty  thousand  men, 
and  then  to  attack  Porter,  who  had  only  about  thirty  thousand 
men,  the  rest  of  McClellan's  army  being  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  getting  ready  to  advance  toward  Richmond.  Jackson  was 
delayed  a  day,  and  after  waiting  till  about  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  of  June  26  for  him,  the  Confederates  made  an  attack 
on  Porter,  whose  corps  was  strongly  posted  behind  earthworks 
on  the  bank  of  a  little  stream  called  Beaver  Dam  Creek.  Every 
effort  was  made  to  storm  this  position,  but  the  Union  troojjs, 
fighting  behind  their  defences,  on  which  were  mounted  large 
siege  guns,  repelled  every  attack,  and  at  night  the  Confederates 
retired  with  a  loss  of  more  than  three  thousand  men,  while 
Porter's  loss  was  only  as  many  hundred.  This  battle,  the  first 
of  the  famous  seven  days'  fight  before  Richmond,  is  sometimes 
called  the  battle  of  Beaver  Dam  Creek,  and  sometimes  that  of 
Mechanicsville,  because  it  was  not  far  from  the  village  of  that 
name. 

Some  writers  think  that  McClellan  ought  to  have  crossed 
the  Chickahominy  with  the  rest  of  his  troops  as  soon  as  Lee 
showed  that  he  was  trying  to  get  between  him  and  White 
House,  and  marched  directly  against  Richmond,  which  might 
have  easily  fallen  into  his  hands.  He  would  thus  have  crushed 
Magruder's  force  and  cut  off  Lcc  from  his  supplies,  which  he 


1862.]  BATTLE  OF  GAINES'S  MILLS.  £65 

drew  from  Richmond,  after  which  he  would  have  stood  a  good 
chance  of  defeating  him.  But  McClellan,  who  believed  that 
Richmond  was  held  by  a  very  large  force,  says  he  did  not  have 
provisions  enough  for  such  a  movement,  and  so  he  decided  to 
"change  his  base"  to  the  James  River — that  is,  to  move  his 
army  across  to  the  James,  so  that  his  provisions  could  be  sent 
to  him  by  that  river  instead  of  by  the  York,  from  which  Lee 
was  cutting  him  off.  But  this  was  a  very  difficult  thing  to  do, 
for  Porter's  corps  had  to  be  taken  across  the  Chickahominy  in 
the  face  of  an  ever  watchful  enemy. 

On  the  night  following  the  battle  of  Mechanicsville  most  of 
the  heavy  guns  and  the  wagons  were  carried  from  Beaver  Dam 
across  the  river,  and  in  the  morning  the  troops  fell  back  to  a 
new  position  on  a  range  of  low  hills  between  Cold  Harbor  and 
the  Chickahominy.  The  object  of  this  was  to  keep  back  the 
enemy  long  enough  to  give  time  to  save  the  stores  and  to  cross 
the  river  by  the  bridges,  which  were  just  behind.  The  Con- 
federates followed  Porter  closely,  but  he  had  taken  a  firm  stand 
on  the  hills  before  they  attacked  him,  they  having  waited  for 
Stonewall  Jackson  to  come  up.  About  two  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, A.  P.  Hill  began  the  battle  on  the  right  of  the  Union 
line,  but  many  of  his  troops  being  men  who  had  never  been 
under  fire  before,  he  was  repulssd  after  a  fight  of  two  hours  and 
driven  back  with  great  loss.  Longstreet  then  attacked  on  the 
Union  left,  and  Stonewall  Jackson  and  D.  H.  Hill  coming  up  an 
attack  was  made  all  along  the  line.  General  McClellan  had 
sent  to  Porter  all  the  reinforcements  he  could  spare,  but  Ma- 
gruder,  who  commanded  the  Confederate  troops  on  the  Rich- 
mond side,  made  a  great  show  of  moving  his  troops  from  one 
place  to  another,  and  the  Union  generals  on  that  side,  thinking 
that  he  had  a  very  much  larger  force  than  he  really  had,  and  not 
knowing  when  he  was  going  to  attack,  were  afraid  to  let  many 
of  their  men  go.  So  it  happened  that  Magruder  with  only 
twenty-eight  thousand  men  kept  in  check  seventy  thousand 
Union  troops  on  one  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  while  Lee  with 
sixty  thousand  men  fought  thirty-five  thousand  Union  troops 
on  the  other  side.  At  last,  when  all  the  Confederates  attacked 
at  once,  Jackson  stormed  the  height  on  the  Union  left,  capturing 
fourteen  pieces  of  artillery.  The  Union  line  began  to  give  way 
at  all  points,  and  the    soldiers   retreated  in  much  confusion 


266  SEVEN  DAYS'  FIGHT.  [1862. 

toward  the  bridges.  About  dusk  two  fresli  brigades  came  over 
from  the  other  side  and  made  a  stand,  and  encouraged  by  them 
the  broken  lines  were  reformed.  Night  soon  set  in  and  the 
Confederates  stopped  the  pursuit,  and  under  cover  of  the  dark- 
ness the  weary  soldiers  silently  retreated  across  the  river,  destroy- 
ing the  bridges  behind  them.  Thus  ended  the  battle  of  Gaines's 
Mills,  so  named  from  a  flouring-mill  and  saw-mill  which  stood 
near  the  field.  The  Confederates  called  it  the  battle  of  the 
Chickahominy.  The  loss  of  each  side  is  not  accurately  known; 
but  it  is  thought  that  the  Unionists  had  about  six  thousand 
killed  and  wounded  and  two  thousand  taken  prisoners.  They 
also  lost  twenty-two  cannons.  The  Confederate  loss  in  men  was 
probably  about  the  same. 

General  McCall  had  a  narrow  escape  while  riding  over  the 
field  the  night  after  the  battle.  He  and  Major  Lewis  of  his 
staff  mistook  the  road  in  the  darkness,  and  after  riding  some  dis- 
tance were  greeted  by  the  sharp  "halt"  of  a  sentry. 

"Friends,"  answered  the  officer. 

"Advance,  friend,  and  give  the  countersign,"  said  the  sen- 
try. 

An  orderly — that  is,  a  soldier  who  attends  an  officer  to  carry 
messages,  etc. — who  attended  the  General,  rode  forward  at  com- 
mand and  answered: 

"Escort  with  the  General." 

"General  what?" 

"General  McCall." 

"Of  what  army?"  asked  the  sentinel. 

"The  Army  of  the  Potomac,"  replied  the  General  himself, 
riding  forward. 

"Yes,  yes,"  responded  the  sentinel,  "but  on  what  side?" 

"  The  command  of  Major-General  McClellan,"  said  the  Gen- 
eral. 

"What!"  yelled  the  sentry,  and  he  and  others  with  him 
raised  their  rifles.  Major  Lewis,  who  had  noticed  by  their  voices 
that  the  men  were  Southerners,  had  wheeled  around,  and  seiz- 
ing the  General's  horse  by  the  rein,  he  sank  his  spurs  into  his 
horse's  side,  and  dashed  off,  followed  by  the  rifle  balls  of  the 
Confederate  pickets.  Though  fired  at  more  than  twenty  times, 
they  got  back  safe  to  their  own  lines;  but  all  their  horses  were 
hit,  and  one  was  killed. 


1862.]  BATTLE  OF  SAVAGE'S  STATION.  267 

On  Saturday,  June  28,  McClellan  began  the  march  toward 
the  James  Eiver,  but  Lee  knew  nothing  of  the  movement  until 
the  night  of  that  day.  The  Confederates  opened  an  artillery 
fire  in  two  or  three  places,  but  finding  the  Union  works  fully 
manned,  they  concluded  that  McClellan's  army  was  still  within 
its  intrenchments.  Two  days  before,  a  large  quantity  of  stores 
had  been  moved  from  White  House  to  Savage's  Station,  south 
of  the  Chickahominy,  on  the  line  of  the  Kichmond  and  York 
River  Railroad.  What  could  not  be  carried  away  had  been 
burned,  and  the  vessels  there  had  been  sent  round  to  the  James 
River.  When  the  retreat  began,  the  commanders  were  ordered 
to  load  the  wagons  at  Savage's  Station  with  only  necessary 
things,  and  to  destroy  the  rest;  so  vast  quantities  of  clothing  and 
provisions  were  burned.  About  twenty-five  hundred  sick  and 
wounded  had  to  be  left  behind  in  the  hospitals.  The  line  of 
retreat  lay  across  a  great  morass  called  the  White  Oak  Swamp, 
through  which  the  trains  of  wagons  and  the  troops  had  to  pass 
by  one  narrow  road.  All  day  and  all  night  long  lines  of  wagons 
laden  with  stores,  and  droves  of  beef-cattle  intended  for  food, 
passed  over  this  causeway,  followed  by  men  and  horses.  Gen- 
eral McClellan  himself  left  Savage's  Station  on  the  morning  of 
the  29th,  and  about  the  same  time  Lee,  who  had  stayed  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  because  he  thought  that 
McClellan  intended  to  cross  the  lower  Chickahominy  and  move 
down  the  Peninsula  toward  Yorktown,  crossed  the  river  and 
began  the  pursuit.  Magruder,  who  had  been  ordered  to  follow 
the  Union  army,  attacked  Sumner's  corps,  which  was  guarding 
the  rear.  The  fighting  was  severe  from  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  until  eight  in  the  evening,  but  Magruder  was  re- 
pulsed, and  Sumner  crossed  the  swamp  in  the  night,  destroy- 
ing the  bridge  behind  him.  This  is  commonly  called  the  bat- 
tle of  Savage's  Station. 

Stonewall  Jackson  followed  through  the  swamp  on  the 
morning  of  June  30,  but  the  Union  troops  had  stopped  on  the 
other  side  and  planted  cannons  which  commanded  the  site  of 
the  bridge,  so  that  he  could  not  rebuild  it.  He  tried  to  force 
a  passage,  but  was  repulsed.  While  he  was  trying  to  advance 
by  this  route,  Longstreet  and  A.  P.  Hill  were  marching  by  a 
road  west  of  the  swamp,  which  crossed  the  road  on  which  the 
Union  troops  were  retreating.    The  Confederates  attacked  about 


268 


SEVEN  DAYS'  FIGHT. 


[1862. 


three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  battle  raged  furiously 
until  darkness  put  an  end  to  it.  Sometimes  one  side  prevailed 
and  sometimes  another,  but  during  the  night  the  Union  troops 
left  the  field  in  the  possession  of  the  enemy,  and  withdrew  to 
Malvern  Hill,  where  the  remainder  of  the  army  was  strongly 
posted  within  reach  of  the  James  Kiver.  This  is  sometimes 
called  the  battle  of  Glendale,  but  the  Confederates  called  it  the 

battle  of  Frazier's  Farm, 
having 


it  having  been  fought 
mostly  on  a  farm  owned 
by  a  man  of  that  name. 
General  McCall,  who  so 
narrowly  escaped  cap- 
ture after  the  battle  of 
Gaines's  Mill,  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy 
in  this  battle,  and  was 
carried  a  prisoner  to 
Eichmond. 

Malvern  Hill  forms 
a  kind  of  table  land 
sloping  toward  Rich- 
mond. In  front  the 
ground  is  open,  and  be- 
hind that  is  a  broken 
and  thickly  wooded 
country,  with  a  long 
swamp  passable  at  only 
a  few  places.  General 
McClellan  posted  the 
left  and  centre   of  his 

Battle  of  Malvern  Hill.  -.*  i  tth 

army  on  Malvern  Mill, 
and  the  right  in  a  line  through  the  woods  running  back  to  the 
James  Eiver  at  a  place  called  Haxall.  The  positions  of  the  dif- 
ferent commanders  are  shown  in  the  accompanying  map.  As 
Lee  was  expected  to  attack  on  the  left,  the  most  troops  were 
placed  there,  and  the  gunboats  were  so  stationed  in  the  river 
that  they  could   give  their  aid  if  necessary. 

General  Lee  got  all  his  forces  together  again  in  the  morning 
of  Tuesday,  July  1,  and  followed  the  TJnjon  troops,  but  on  ac- 


1862.]  BATTLE  OF  MALVERN  HILL.  '      269 

count  of  the  difficulty  of  the  ground  he  did  not  get  ready  to 
attack  until  late  in  the  afternoon.  He  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  carry  the  heights  by  storm,  and  to  "drive  the  invaders  into 
the  James."  The  battle  began  by  an  artillery  duel,  which  was 
followed  by  an  unsuccessful  attack  of  infantry  on  Couch's  divi- 
sion, the  Confederates  being  driven  back  in  confusion.  Another 
heavy  attack  on  Porter's  corps,  on  the  left  of  the  Union  line, 
was  also  repulsed,  and  for  a  short  time  there  was  a  lull  in  the 
fighting.  But  about  six  o'clock  still  another  determined  effort 
was  made  to  storm  the  positions  held  by  Porter  and  Couch. 
After  a  heavy  fire  from  artillery,  the  Confederates  rushed  up 
the  hill  with  fixed  bayonets,  but  they  were  met  with  a  fire  of 
cannon  and  musketry  which  cut  them  down  by  hundreds.  At 
the  same  time  the  gunboats  in  the  river  were  throwing  into  their 
lines  heavy  shells,  which  burst  with  a  dreadful  noise,  tearing 
up  the  earth  and  trees,  and  doing  great  execution.  The  Con- 
federates struggled  bravely,  but  the  effort  was  too  much  for 
them,  and  by  nine  o'clock  they  were  repulsed  at  all  points  and 
driven  from  the  field.  This  battle,  which  is  called  the  battle  of 
Malvern  Hill,  ended  in  a  loss  to  the  Confederates  of  about  five 
thousand  men,  while  the  Union  troops  did  not  lose  more  than 
a  third  as  many.  But  although  it  was  a  victory  for  the  Union 
arms,  it  had  all  the  effect  of  a  defeat,  for  General  McClellan, 
feeling  that  his  position  was  not  a  safe  one,  again  ordered  a  re- 
treat. During  the  night  the  troops  took  up  once  more  their 
weary  march.  The  next  day  was  rainy,  hut  as  soon  as  McClel- 
lan's  purpose  was  discovered,  Lee  prepared  to  follow  again. 
The  Union  army  had  disappeared  into  a  thickly  wooded  swamp, 
and  it  was  soon  found  out  that  it  had  crossed  the  morass  by  a 
single  narrow  road,  and  taken  a  position  at  Harrison's  Landing, 
on  the  James  Eiver,  where  it  was  protected  by  the  gunboats,  and 
where  provisions  could  be  safely  brought  to  it.  On  the  8th  of 
July,  General  Lee  withdrew  his  army  within  the  defences  of 
Eichmond. 

Thus  ended  what  is  commonly  called  the  seven  days'  fight 
before  Eichmond,  but  the  fighting  really  ended  at  the  close  of 
July  1,  the  sixth  day.  McClellan's  retreat  continued  during 
the  seventh  day,  and  he  was  not  entirely  settled  in  his  new 
position  until  July  3,  the  eighth  day  after  Lee's  attack  began. 
General  McClellan  gives  his  whole  loss  during  this  movement 


270  SEVEN  DAYS'  FIGHT.  [1862. 

as  15,249.  But  General  Lee  in  his  report  estimates  it  as  much 
greater,  and  claims  that  he  took  ten  thousand  prisoners,  thirty- 
five  thousand  stand  of  small  arms,  and  fifty-two  pieces  of  artil- 
lery. The  Confederate  loss  is  not  fully  known,  but  it  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  more  than  nineteen  thousand. 

As  soon  as  the  army  reached  the  James,  the  Prince  de  Join- 
ville  and  his  nephews,  the  Comte  de  Paris  and  the  Due  de 
Chartres,  left  by  a  gunboat  for  Fortress  Monroe.  They  were 
sorry  to  leave,  as  they  had  made  many  friends,  but  urgent  mat- 
ters called  them  to  Europe,  and  they  were  obliged  to  bring  their 
military  service  in  the  United  States  to  a  sudden  close.  The 
young  princes  had  performed  their  duties  nobly  during  the 
seven  days'  fight,  and  had  especially  distinguished  themselves 
in  the  battle  at  Gaines's  Mills,  where,  attached  to  the  staff  of 
General  Porter,  they  freely  endangered  their  lives  in  aiding  to 
reform  the  broken  lines.  In  courage,  fidelity,  and  activity 
they  were  excelled  by  none,  and  their  brother  officers  who  had 
shared  the  privations  and  dangers  of  the  field  with  them  saw 
their  departure  with  regret. 

The  news  of  the  retreat  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  from 
its  position  before  Richmond  to  the  James  River  caused  great 
excitement  and  anxiety  throughout  the  loyal  States,  and  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  decided  to  call  for  an  additional  force  of  three 
hundred  thousand  men.  Desirous  of  learning  the  exact  condi- 
tion of  affairs  on  the  James,  he  visited  the  headquarters  of 
General  McClellan.  July  8,  and  reviewed  the  army,  which  he 
found  to  consist  then  of  eighty-six  thousand  men.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  fearful  that  General  Lee's  retirement  toward  Richmond 
meant  an  advance  on  Washington,  and  he  suggested  that  the 
army  should  leave  the  Peninsula  and  return  to  Washington. 
But  General  McClellan  opposed  this,  for  he  believed  that  with 
proper  aid  from  the  government  Richmond  might  easily  be 
taken  from  his  new  position. 


CHAPTER  XXIIL 
POPE'S    CAMPAIGN. 

General  Pope  and  the  Army  of  Virginia.— Pope's  Address  to  his  Soldiers.— Halleck  as 
General-in-Chief.— Lee's  Strategy.— Battle  of  Cedar  Mountain.— Stuart's  Ride 
around  Pope.— Pope's  Uniform.— Stonewall  Jackson  behind  Pope.— Fight  at  Bris- 
tow  Station.— The  Second  Battle  of  Bull  Run.— Pope  Deceived.— Battle  of  Chan- 
tilly.— Pope  Shows  his  Back.— Death  of  Phil  Kearny.— Pope  Resigns  and  Goes 
West.— McClellan  again.— Pope's  Charges  against  Porter.— Lee's  Successful  Cam- 
paign.—The  Confederates  Cross  the  Potomac— Cool  Reception  in  Maryland.— 
Barbara  Frietchie  and  Stonewall  Jackson. 

WHILE  these  things  had  been  taking  place  before  Rich- 
mond, the  forces  under  Fremont,  Banks,  and  McDowell 
had  been  brought  together  and  consolidated  into  the  Army  of 
Virginia,  the  command  of  which  had  been  given  to  Major  Gen- 
eral John  Pope.  As  Fremont  objected  to  serving  under  an 
officer  who  had  been  under  his  command  in  the  West,  his  corps 
was  given  to  General  Sigel.  General  Pope,  who  had  had  some 
military  experience  in  General  Halleck's  department,  had  come 
to  Washington  with  singular  notions  about  the  methods  of 
fighting  in  the  East  and  the  West,  and  soon  after  taking  com- 
mand he  issued  a  bombastic  address  to  his  army,  in  which  he 
cast  reflections  on  the  generals  who  had  preceded  him,  and 
boasted  of  what  he  himself  intended  to  do.  "I  have  come  to 
you,"  he  said,  "from  the  West,  where  we  have  always  seen  the 
backs  of  our  enemies — from  an  army  whose  business  it  has  been 
to  seek  the  adversary,  and  to  beat  him  when  found."  This 
made  him  unpopular  with  the  Eastern  soldiers,  and  created  ill- 
feeling  against  him  among  the  officers. 

It  soon  became  evident  that  General  Pope's  ideas  of  con- 
ducting the  war  were  so  different  from  those  of  General  McClel- 
lan and  other  officers  in  command  of  his  army  that  they  could 
not  act  in  harmony  unless  they  had  some  officer  over  them;  so 
Major-General  Halleck  was  called  from  the  West  and  made 
general-in-chief  of  all  the  armies  of  the  United  States.  In  this 
position  of  course  he  outranked  both  officers,  and  both  had 
to  obey  his  orders.  He  agreed  with  General  Pope  in  criticising 
McClellan's  movement  to  the  James  River,  and  insisted  that 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  should  be  removed  from  the  Penin- 


272 


POPE'S  CAMPAIGN. 


[1862. 


sula  and  brought  back  before  Washington.  This  was  precisely 
,  what  General  Lee  wished  to  bring  about,  for  McClellan's  army 
was  still  very  strong  and,  while  holding  a  position  almost  im- 
possible to  be  successfully  attacked,  continually  threatened 
Eichmond.  President  Lincoln  had  promised  to  send  General 
McClellan  twenty  thousand  men  from  Burnside's  department 
in  North  Carolina,  and  with  this  addition  to  his  army  McClel- 
lan intended  to  advance  once  more  against  Eichmond. 

Lee  finally  concluded  that  the  best  way  to  get  rid  of  McClel- 
lan would  be  to  attack  Pope's  army  and  thus  threaten  Wash- 
ington again,  for  he  knew  through  his  spies  of  nearly  every- 
thing going  on  there,  and  he  felt  that  such  a  movement  would 

frighten     the     politicians 


and  bring  such  a  pressure 
to  bear  on  Mr.  Lincoln 
that  he  would  be  forced 
to  recall  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac.  He  therefore 
sent  Stonewall  Jackson  to 
Gordonsville,  toward  which 
Pope  appeared  to  be  mov- 
ing. Gordonsville  was  an 
important  railroad  place, 
on  the  line  of  the  railway 
connecting  Eichmond  with 
the  Shenandoah  Valley 
and  with  southwestern 
Virginia.  Pope  was  then  on  the  other  side  of  the  Eapidan 
with  about  forty  thousand  men,  and  Jackson,  finding  him  too 
strong  to  attack,  wraited  at  Gordonsville  for  reinforcements. 
He  was  soon  joined  by  A.  P.  Hill,  and  he  then  crossed  the 
Eapidan  in  search  of  Pope.  On  the  9th  of  August  part  of  his 
force,  under  General  Ewell,  attacked  General  Banks's  corps  at 
Cedar  Mountain,  and  after  a  hard  fight  defeated  it.  Banks 
fell  back,  pursued  by  the  enemy,  and  Jackson,  after  holding 
the  battle-field  two  days,  recrossed  the  Eapidan  to  Gordons- 
ville. He  was  soon  after  joined  by  Lee  with  Longstreet's  divi- 
sion and  Stuart's  cavalry,  and  moved  forward  again  across 
the  Eapidan.  Pope  then  fell  back  behind  the  Eappahannock. 
Lee  followed,  and  tried  to  find  a  place  to  cross  the  river,  but  all 


Henry  Wager  Halleck. 


1862.]  JACKSON  BEHIND  POPE.  273 

the  fords  were  so  strongly  guarded  that  he  could  not  force  a 
passage. 

In  the  mean  time  Stuart,  with  fifteen  hundred  cavalry,  rode 
around  behind  Pope's  army  one  dark  and  stormy  night  (Aug. 
22),  with  the  intention  of  cutting  the  railroad.  By  chance  he 
struck  Pope's  headquarters  at  Catlett's  Station,  and  captured 
his  baggage  and  his  official  papers,  which  gave  General  Lee  full 
information  about  the  number  of  his  troops,  his  position,  and 
his  designs.  Stuart  burned  a  few  army  wagons  and  carried  off 
about  three  hundred  prisoners  and  some  booty.  Among  the  spoils 
was  General  Pope's  dress  uniform  coat,  which  Stuart  said  paid 
him  for  his  hat  and  cape  which  some  Union  Cavalry  had  captured 
a  short  time  before.  On  his  return  he  dressed  up  a  negro  in 
Pope's  uniform,  shoulder-straps  and  all,  and  made  him  ride  on 
a  mule  beside  him  through  the  streets  of  Warrenton,  bearing 
on  his  back  a  placard  with  the  inscription:  NO  RETREAT  ! 
ON  TO  RICHMOND  ! 

The  information  that  Lee  had  obtained  from  Pope's  papers 
induced  him  to  divide  his  army  and  send  part  of  it  to  cut  off 
Pope  from  Washington.  This  dangerous  duty  was  given  to 
Stonewall  Jackson,  who  marched  rapidly  up  the  river  and,  pass- 
ing the  Bull  Run  Mountains  through  Thoroughfare  Gap, 
reached  Bnstow  Station,  on  the  Orange  and  Alexandria  Rail- 
road, on  the  evening  of  August  26.  This  was  behind  Pope  and 
between  him  and  Washington.  From  there  he  sent  Stuart 
with  his  cavalry  to  Manassas  Junction.  Stuart  reached  there 
before  midnight,  surprised  the  post,  captured  three  hundred 
prisoners,  eight  guns,  ten  locomotives,  seven  trains  of  cars,  and 
immense  quantities  of  stores.  All  of  the  stores  and  other  things 
that  could  not  be  used  were  burned. 

Pope  had  been  deceived  by  Jackson's  movement,  but  as  soon 
as  he  understood  it  he  began  to  fall  back  toward  Manassas  in 
three  columns.  General  Hooker's  column  had  a  light  near 
Bristow  Station  with  a  part  of  Jackson's  force,  under  Ewell, 
and  defeated  it.  Pope  ordered  McDowell  to  move  from  Gaines- 
ville toward  Manassas  on  the  morning  of  August  28,  saying  "we 
shall  bag  the  whole  crowd." 

Jackson's  position  was  now  a  very  dangerous  one,  for  the 
main  body  of  Lee's  army  was  still  two  days'  march  away  and 
Pope  was  closing  in  on  him  with  a  greatly  superior  force.     He 


274  POPE'S  CAMPAIGN.  [1862. 

moved  quickly  through  Centreville  and  then  turned  westward 
toward  Thoroughfare  Gap  in  order  to  meet  Longstreet,  who  was 
coming  from  that  direction.  Toward  evening  of  August  28 
Jackson  reached  the  old  battle-ground  of  Bull  Bun.  The  ad- 
vance of  McDowell's  corps,  which  was  close  behind,  was  attacked 
furiously  by  Jackson.  The  fight  raged  until  night,  with  con- 
siderable loss  to  both  sides,  but  the  advantage  was  with  the 
Confederates.  General  Ewell  was  badly  wounded  in  this  battle 
and  lost  a  leg. 

On  the  next  morning  the  battle  was  renewed  by  General 
Sigel's  corps.  Sigel  gained  ground  until  about  ten  o'clock, 
when  Jackson  was  reinforced  by  Longstreet's  corps,  which  had 
marched  from  Thoroughfare  Gap.  At  noon  Kearny  came  to 
Sigel's  aid,  and  soon  after  other  parts  of  the  Union  army  arrived, 
and  the  struggle  continued  until  night  fell. 

Pope  wrote  to  Washington  that  a  terrific  battle  had  been 
fought,  which  "lasted  from  daylight  until  dark,  by  which  time 
the  enemy  was  driven  from  the  field,  which  I  now  occupy." 
Deceived  the  next  morning  by  the  appearance  of  the  retreat  of 
Lee's  troops,  he  ordered  McDowell  to  pursue,  telegraphing  to 
Washington  that  the  enemy  was  "retreating  to  the  mountains." 
But  General  McDowell  soon  found  out  that  this  was  a  mistake, 
and  the  movement  resulted  in  a  bloody  battle  in  which  the 
Union  forces  were  defeated.  During  the  night  the  army  fell  back 
across  Bull  Bun  to  Centrevillle,  where  it  was  joined  by  the  corps 
of  Franklin  and  Sumner  from  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
These  two  battles  (Aug.  29  and  30)  are  sometimes  called  the 
Second  Bull  Bun  or  Second  Manassas;  but  the  name  is  some- 
times given  only  to  the  second  battle,  the  first  (Aug.  29)  being 
called  the  battle  of  Groveton,  from  a  hamlet  near  by. 

Lee  sent  Jackson  around  again  toward  Fairfax  Court-House, 
so  as  to  cut  off  Pope  from  Washington.  But  Pope,  fearing 
such  a  movement,  had  fallen  back,  and  on  September  1st  Jack- 
son attacked  his  right  at  a  place  called  Chantilly.  He  was  re- 
pulsed after  a  short  but  severe  fight,  and  on  the  next  day,  by 
order  of  General  Halleck,  the  army  was  marched  back  to  the 
Potomac  and  withdrawn  within  the  defences  of  Washington. 

One  of  the  greatest  losses  suffered  by  the  Union  army  in  this 
campaign  was  that  of  Major-General  Philip  Kaarny,  who  was 
killed  at  Chantilly.     He  was  born  in  New  York  (1815),  and 


1862.] 


DEATH  OF  KEARNY. 


275 


studied  law,  but  when  twenty-two  years  old  became  a  lieutenant 
of  dragoons  in  the  United  States  army.  Being  sent  to  Europe 
to  study  the  French  cavalry  tactics,  he  went  to  Algeria,  where 
he  served  in  the  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  and  received  the  cross 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor  for  bravery.  He  was  a  captain  of 
dragoons  in  the  Mexican  war,  was  made  a  major  for  gallantry 
at  Contreras  and  Churubusco,  and  lost  his  left  arm  in  a  charge 
before  the  city  of  Mexico.  After  the  war  he  again  went  to 
Europe  to  study,  served  in  the  French  army  in  the  great  battles 
of  Magenta  and  Solferino,  and  was  a  second  time  decorated  by 
the  Emperor  Napoleon  III.  with  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor.  He  hastened  home  when  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  was 
made  a  brigadier-general, 
and  distinguished  himself 
at  Williamsburg,  Seven 
Pines,  Frazier's  Farm,  and 
at  Second  Bull  Run.  At 
Chantilly  he  rode  forward 
to  the  front  to  reconnoitre, 
and  by  mistake  got  within 
the  Confederate  lines.  He 
asked  a  Confederate  soldier 
where  a  certain  regiment 
was  posted,  and  seeing  his 
blunder  turned  to  ride 
away,  Avhen  the  soldier  shot 
him  dead.  His  body  was 
left  on  the  battle-field,  and 
was  sent  the  next  day  by  General  Lee,  who  had  known  him  well 
in  the  old  army,  to  General  Pope  with  a  flag  of  truce.  He  was 
much  loved  by  his  soldiers,  and  those  who  had  served  under 
him  Avore  in  his  memory  a  decoration  formed  of  a  golden  Mal- 
tese cross  bearing  his  name,  suspended  by  a  red  ribbon. 

While  the  army  of  Pope  was  thus  falling  back  in  disorder 
upon  Washington,  the  capital  of  the  nation  was  believed  to  be  in 
the  greatest  danger.  The  politicians,  who  had  done  their 
utmost  to  bring  about  the  downfall  of  McClellan,  were  terror- 
stricken  and  knew  not  which  way  to  turn.  They  had  no  advice 
to  give,  no  leader  to  suggest.  Some  even  made  preparations 
for  flight.     In  anxiety  and  fear  President  Lincoln  turned  for 


Philip  Kearny. 


276 


POPE'S  CAMPAIGN'. 


[1862. 


aid  to  the  only  man  whom  he  felt  could  save  the  army  and  the 
government.  In  company  with  General  Halleck  he  went  at 
half-past  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  (Sept.  2)  to  General 
McClellan's  house  in  Washington. 

"Will  you,"  asked  the  President,  "dare  you  take  the  com- 
mand in  such  a  dangerous  crisis?" 

McClellan,  notwithstanding  the  many  affronts  which  had 
been  put  upon  him,  promised  to  do  what  he  could  to  save  the 
army.  He  at  once  rode  to  the  front  and  set  about  the  task  of 
reorganizing  the  troops.  His  old  comrades  received  him  with 
shouts  of  welcome,  and  every  soldier  felt  again  the  confidence 
which  Pope  had  never  inspired  them  with.     That  general  had 

come  among  them  with 
the  proud  boast  that  he 
had  always  seen  the  backs 
of  his  enemies,  yet  he  had 
done  little  else  than  show 
his  own  since  he  took 
command  of  them. 

General  Pope,  at  his 
own  request,  was  sent 
back  to  the  West,  and  the 
Army  of  Virginia  was 
united  with  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac.  During  his 
short  but  disastrous  cam- 
fitz  John  Porter.  paigI1  General  Pope  had 

lost  about  thirty  thousand  men,  while  the  Confederate  loss  had 
not  been  more  than  half  as  many.  General  Lee  claimed  that 
he  had  taken  nine  thousand  prisoners,  thirty  pieces  of  artillery, 
and  about  twenty  thousand  stand  of  arms.  General  Pope 
asserted  that  his  failure  was  due  to  want  of  help  from  Wash- 
ington and  especially  to  the  conduct  of  General  Fitz  John 
Porter,  who,  he  said,  "from  unnecessary  and  unusual  delays, 
and  frequent  and  flagrant  disregard  for  my  orders,  took  no  part 
whatever,  except  in  the  battle  of  the  30th  of  August."  Pope 
afterward  made  charges  against  Porter,  who  was  tried  by  a 
court-martial,  and  in  January,  18G3,  that  officer  was  dismissed 
from  the  service  and  "forever  disqualified  from  holding  any 
office  of  trust  or  profit  under  the  Government  of  the  United 


1862.]  LEE  IN  MARYLAND.  277 

States."  General  Porter's  friends  denied  the  justice  of  this, 
and  claimed  that  he  was  made  a  sacrifice  to  satisfy  the  politi- 
cians at  Washington.  This  would  seem  to  be  true,  for  in  1880 
a  new  investigation  was  made  of  the  charges  against  him,  and 
they  were  proven  to  be  false. 

General  Lee's  campaign  had  been  thus  far  very  successful. 
Only  three  months  had  passed  since  he  took  command  of  the 
army  for  the  defence  of  Richmond,  then  menaced  by  a  force 
considerably  larger  than  his  own.  Yet  in  that  short  time  the 
positions  of  the  two  armies  had  been  completely  reversed: 
instead  of  Richmond  being  menaced,  it  was  now  Washington, 
and  the  great  force  which  had  threatened  the  Confederate  capi- 
tal was  on  the  defensive  behind  its  earthworks.  More  than 
that — another  army,  scarcely  inferior  to  his  own  in  numbers, 
had  been  driven  back  from  position  to  position  until  its  disor- 
ganized masses  had  been  merged  with  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac. No  Union  soldiers  remained  between  Washington  and 
Richmond,  and  the  Confederates  were  free  to  gather  the  rich 
harvests  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley  and  of  all  northern  Virginia. 
It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Confederacy  rejoiced  at 
the  tidings  of  Lee's  successes,  and  that  the  friends  of  the  Union 
were  anxious  and  despondent. 

Lee  knew  that  it  would  be  useless  to  attack  the  strong  de- 
fences of  Washington,  so  he  determined  to  move  up  the  Poto- 
mac and  cross  that  river  into  Maryland,  which  State  he  be- 
lieved was  ready  to  rise  in  aid  of  the  Confederacy  if  an  oppor- 
tunity were  given.  He  therefore  marched  to  Leesburg,  and 
between  the  4th  and  7th  of  September  the  whole  Confederate 
army  crossed  the  Potomac  by  the  fords  near  there,  and  en- 
camped not  far  from  Frederick  in  Maryland.  A  proclamation 
was  at  once  issued  in  which  he  told  the  inhabitants  that  it  was 
his  mission  to  aid  them  in  "regaining  their  rights"  and  "to 
restore  the  independence  and  sovereignty  of  their  State."  But 
Lee  soon  found  out  his  mistake;  the  people  of  Maryland  did 
not  look  with  any  favor  on  the  "  army  of  liberation,"  who  were 
probably  as  ragged  and  dirty  a  force  as  ever  marched.  "  Thou- 
sands," says  Lee,  "were  destitute  of  shoes;"  some  wore  gray 
uniforms  and  some  butternut,  some  had  caps  and  some  felt 
hats.  The  sight  of  these  ragged  and  filthy  soldiers,  veterans 
though  they  were  of  many  a  hard-fought  field,  did  not  excite 


278  POPE'S  CAMPAIGN.  [1862. 

any  enthusiasm  among  the  people  of  Maryland,  and  the  stirring 
notes  of  "  Maryland,  my  Maryland  "*  fell  upon  deaf  ears.  Lee's 
recruiting  offices  were  empty,  and  he  lost  more  men  by  deser- 
tion than  he  gained  for  his  ranks. 

The  advance  guard,  led  by  Stonewall  Jackson,  entered 
Frederick  City  on  the  morning  of  Saturday,  September  6,  and 
left  there  on  the  following  Wednesday.  Their  reception,  says 
an  account  written  at  the  time  by  a  United  States  army  sur- 
geon, who  was  there  in  charge  of  a  hospital,  "was  decidedly 
cool;  all  the  stores  shut,  no  flags  flying,  and  everything  partook 
of  a  churchyard  appearance."  But  a  story  has  since  been  told 
that  many  Union  flags  were  flying  over  the  town  when  Jackson 
marched  in,  and  that  he  ordered  them  all  to  be  hauled  down. 
Among  those  so  treated  was  one  on  the  house  of  an  old  woman 
named  Barbara  Frietchie,  who  patriotically  displayed  her  flag 
again,  hanging  it  by  its  staff  from  her  attic  window.  But  the 
story  is  best  told  by  Whittier,  in  his  stirring  poem  called 
"Barbara  Frietchie." 

"  Up  rose  old  Barbara  Frietchie  then, 
Bowed  with  her  fourscore  years  and  ten; 

Bravest  of  all  in  Frederick  town, 

She  took  up  the  flag  the  men  hauled  down; 

In  her  attic  window  the  staff  she  set 
To  show  that  one  heart  was  loyal  yet. 

Up  the  street  came  the  rebel  tread, 
Stonewall  Jackson  riding  ahead. 

Under  his  slouched  hat  left  and  right 
He  glanced:  the  old  flag  met  his  sight. 

'Halt! '  the  dust-brown  ranks  stood  fast. 
'Fire! '  out  blazed  the  rifle-blast. 

It  shivered  the  window,  pane  and  sash; 
It  rent  the  banner  with  seam  and  gash. 

Quick,  as  it  fell  from  the  broken  staff, 
Dame  Barbara  snatched  the  silken  scarf; 

She  leaned  far  out  on  the  window-sill, 
And  shook  it  forth  with  a  royal  will. 

'  Shoot,  if  you  must,  this  old  gray  head, 
But  spare  your  country's  flag,'  she  said. 

*  See  Appendix,  page  567. 


1862.]  B ABB  ABA  FBIETCEIE.  279 

A  shade  of  sadness,  a  blush  of  shame, 
Over  the  face  of  the  leader  came; 

The  nobler  nature  within  him  stirred 
To  life  at  that  woman's  deed  and  word: 

'  Who  touches  a  hair  of  you  gray  head 
Dies  like  a  dog!    March  on! '  he  said. 

All  day  long  through  Frederick  street 
Sounded  the  tread  of  marching  feet. 

All  day  long  that  free  flag  tost 
Over  the  heads  of  the  rebel  host." 

It  is  almost  too  bad  to  spoil  so  pretty  a  story,  but  a  regard 
for  the  truth  of  history  makes  it  necessary  to  say  that  it  is 
probably  only  a  fable.  There  was  such  a  person  as  Barbara 
Frietchie  living  in  Frederick  at  the  time,  but  she  was  bedridden 
and  helpless,  and  could  "only  move,"  writes  her  nephew  in 
1879,*  "  as  she  was  moved,  by  the  help  of  her  attendants."  She 
died  about  three  months  afterward  (Dec.  18, 1862),  aged  ninety- 
six  years.  Her  nephew  says  also  that  Stonewall  Jackson's 
troops  did  not  pass  her  house  at  all  in  the  march  into  Freder- 
ick, but  entered  by  a  back  street;  and  this  is  corroborated  by 
General  Ewell  of  the  Confederate  army,  who  was  present.  But 
it  makes  little  difference  whether  the  story  is  true  or  not;  the 
patriotic  Barbara  Frietchie  of  Whittier's  genius  will  live  in  the 
hearts  of  all  true  Americans  as  long  as  the  nation  shall  survive. 

*  Southern  Historical  Society's  Papers,  Vol.  VII. ,  No.  9. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 
SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.— ANTIETAM. 

McClellan  Marches  against  Lee.— Welcome  in  Frederick.— A  Fortunate  Discovery. — 
Stonewall  Jackson  goes  to  Harper's  Ferry.— Battles  op  South  Mountain  and 
Crampton's  Gap.— Fall  of  Harper's  Ferry.— Lee  Hard  Pressed. — His  Position  near 
Sharpsburg.— The  Battle  of  Antietam.— Death  of  General  Mansfield.— Hooker 
Wounded.— Summer  Holds  his  Ground.— Burnside  Attacks  on  the  Left.— Lee  Re- 
crosses  the  Potomac— A  Drawn  Battle.— Good-by,  Sammy — I'm  a  Bold  Sojer  Boy.— 
Jeb  Stuart  in  Pennsylvania.— McClellan  Follows  Lee.— Superseded  by  Burnside. 
— McClellan's  Farewell.— A  Question  for  General  Halleck. 

AS  soon  as  it  was  known  that  Lee  had  crossed  the  Potomac, 
General  McClellan  moved  against  him  with  about  eighty- 
seven  thousand  men,  leaving  General  Banks  in  command  of  the 
defences  of  Washington.  As  it  was  not  known  whether  Lee 
intended  to  march  toward  Baltimore  or  into  Pennsylvania, 
McClellan  had  to  advance  cautiously  in  such  a  way  as  to  guard 
both  Washington  and  Baltimore.  But  his  movements,  careful 
as  they  were,  did  not  suit  the  authorities  in  Washington,  who 
were  still  troubled  with  their  old  fears  for  the  safety  of  the 
capital,  and  Halleck  kept  telegraphing  his  belief  that  the  move- 
ment into  Maryland  was  only  a  feint  to  draw  the  army  away 
toward  Pennsylvania,  and  that  it  was  Lee's  plan  to  turn  McClel- 
lan's  left  flank  and  get  between  him  and  Washington.  On  the 
12th  of  September  McClellan  reached  Frederick,  two  days  after 
Lee  had  left. 

A  gentleman  who  witnessed  the  entrance  of  the  Union 
troops  from  the  top  of  a  house  says  the  sight  was  magnificent 
— nothing  but  moving  masses  of  men  and  gleaming  bayonets 
being  visible  as  far  as  one  could  see.  The  people  gave  them  a 
reception  very  different  from  that  given  to  the  Confederates: 
flags  were  displayed  everywhere,  stores  and  houses  were  opened, 
and  the  tired  soldiers  were  fed  with  the  best  of  food.  When 
McClellan  rode  in,  cheers  were  given  on  every  side,  handker- 
chiefs were  waved  and  bouquets  thrown,  and  men,  women,  and 
children  crowded  around  his  horse  with  wishes  for  his  welfare 
and  success.  Such  a  welcome  was  very  inspiring  to  both 
officers  and  men,  for  it  showed  that  most  of  the  people  were 
still  loyal  to  the  Union. 


1862.1  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  281 

Fortunately,  one  of  General  Lee's  orders,  showing  the  whole 
plan  of  his  campaign,  was  found  in  the  quarters  occupied  by 
General  D.  H.  Hill  when  in  Frederick,  and  this  gave  General 
McClellan  all  the  information  he  wanted  of  the  enemy's  move- 
ments. General  Lee's  intentions  in  invading  Maryland  were  to 
keep  open  communications  with  Richmond  through  the  Shen- 
andoah Valley,  and  by  moving  through  Maryland  toward  Penn- 
sylvania to  draw  the  Union  army  away  from  Washington.  He 
supposed  that  when  he  crossed  the  Potomac  and  advanced  to 
Frederick  Harper's  Ferry  would  be  evacuated  by  the  Union 
troops  there;  but  they  still  held  the  place,  and  as  that  cut  off 
his  supplies,  which  he  expected  to  reach  him  through  the  Val- 
ley, he  had  to  divide  his  army  and  send  part  of  it  under  Stone- 
wall Jackson  to  capture  it.  McClellan,  who  saw  how  useless  it 
was  to  try  to  hold  Harper's  Ferry  after  Lee  had  crossed  into 
Maryland,  had  advised  that  its  garrison  should  be  ordered  either 
to  retreat  into  Pennsylvania  or  to  cross  over  to  Maryland  Heights, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  and  hold  them  until  he  came; 
but  General  Halleck  thought  otherwise  and  ordered  the  place 
to  be  held.  General  McClellan  found  out  from  Lee's  lost  order 
that  Lee  had  thus  divided  his  army,  and  immediately  marched 
in  pursuit  of  him. 

While  Jackson  was  engaged  at  Harper's  Ferry,  Lee  moved 
with  the  rest  of  his  army  toward  Boonesboro. 

A  continuation  of  the  Blue  Ridge  of  Virginia  runs  in  a 
northeasterly  direction  from  the  Potomac  through  Maryland, 
where  it  is  called  the  South  Mountain  range.  There  are  two 
passes  through  this  range,  one  called  Turner's  Gap,  on  the  route 
from  Frederick  to  Boonesboro,  and  the  other  Crampton's  Gap, 
about  six  miles  south  of  it.  Lee  hoped,  after  passing  these  gaps 
and  getting  on  the  west  side  of  the  mountains,  that  he  would 
be  rejoined  by  Jackson  before  McClellan  could  reach  the  passes, 
which  he  did  not  intend  to  defend.  But  McClellan  pushed  for- 
ward so  fast  that  his  advance  was  seen  approaching  South 
Mountain  on  the  afternoon  of  September  13.  Lee  then  saw  that 
he  would  have  to  defend  the  passes  in  order  to  gain  time  for 
Jackson  to  come  up.  So  he  recalled  his  troops  and  prepared  to 
resist  the  passage  of  the  Union  forces.  On  the  next  day  a 
severe  fight  took  place,  the  right  wing  of  the  Union  army, 
under  General  Burnside,  attacking  Turner's  Gap,  and  the  left, 


282 


80  UTH  MO  UNTAIN.  —ANTIETAM. 


[1862. 


under  General  Franklin,  Crampton's  Gap.  The  fight  at  Tur- 
ner's Gap  is  commonly  called  the  battle  of  South  Mountain,  the 
other  the  battle  of  Crampton's  Gap.  The  ground  near  Turner's 
Gap  was  so  difficult  that  little  artillery  could  be  used;  but  the 
Confederates  had  the  advantage,  for  their  riflemen  fought  from 
behind  trees,  rocks,  and  stone  walls,  as  the  Union  soldiers 
pushed  their  way  up  the  steep  hillsides.  By  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  there  was  heavy  fighting  all  along  the  mountain,  the 
Confederates  falling  slowly  back,  bravely  contesting  every  foot 
of  the  ground.     By  sunset  the  Union  troops  had  won  the  crest 

of  the  mountain,  but  with 
a  less  of  fifteen  hundred 
men,  among  whom  Was 
General  Reno,  command- 
er of  the  Ninth  Corps. 
The  Confederate  loss  was 
about  twice  as  many,  one 
half  of  whom  were  prison- 
ers. Among  their  killed 
was  General  Garland. 
During  the  night  the 
Confederates,  seeing  that 
they  could  no  longer  hold 
the  pass,  withdrew,  and 
the  next  morning  the 
right  and  centre  of  the 
Union  army  marched  through  to  the  west  side  of  the  moun- 
tains. At  Crampton's  Gap  General  Franklin  forced  his  way  in 
a  similar  manner  to  the  top  of  the  mountain,  with  a  loss  of 
about  five  hundred,  the  Confederates  losing  as  many,  and  by 
night  his  advance  had  reached  Pleasant  Valley,  west  of  the 
mountains. 

Crampton's  Gap  is  only  four  or  five  miles  from  Maryland 
Heights,  opposite  Harper's  Ferry,  and  General  Franklin  was 
now  able  to  go  to  the  aid  of  Colonel  Miles,  who  commanded  at 
Harper's  Ferry.  By  General  McClellan's  orders  he  moved  in 
that  direction  at  daylight  the  next  morning,  but  the  time  gained 
by  Lee  in  defending  the  passes  had  been  sufficient  to  enable 
Jackson  to  effect  his  purpose.  Although  Colonel  Miles  had 
sent  word  to  McClellan  on  the  morning  of  the  14th  that  he 


William  B.  Franklin. 


1862.] 


SURRENDER  OF  HARPER'S  FERRY. 


283 


could  hold  out  for  two  days,  he  surrendered  at  eight  o'clock  on 
the  morning  of  the  15th,  and  when  Franklin  advanced  toward 
Maryland  Heights  he  was  met  by  the  Confederates  in  such  force 


W  / 

i 


^  lO 


^■^s&Yx    k  ^ 


I  NATIONAL. 
I  CONFEDERATE 


Plan  of  the  Battle  of  Antietam. 


that  he  did  not  dare  to  attack  them.  Colonel  Miles  was  killed 
by  a  cannon-shot  just  as  he  had  hoisted  the  white  flag  in  token 
of  surrender.     He  had  with  him  about  fourteen  thousand  men, 


284  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN— ANTIETAM.  [1862. 

of  whom  twenty-five  hundred  were  cavalry;  the  cavalry  escaped 
on  the  night  of  the  14th,  but  the  remainder,  eleven  thousand 
five  hundred  men,  fell  into  Jackson's  hands.  Among  the  other 
captures  were  seventy-three  guns,  thirteen  thousand  small-arms, 
many  wagons,  and  large  quantities  of  supplies.  Jackson  left 
A.  P.  Hill  to  arrange  the  terms  of  the  surrender,  and  started  at 
once  to  rejoin  Lee,  who  was  anxiously  awaiting  his  coming  near 
Sharpsburg,  for  the  Confederate  commander,  hard  pressed  by 
McClellan,  had  been  forced  to  fall  back  toward  the  Potomac  so 
as  to  effect  a  junction  of  his  divided  army.  On  Monday,  Sep- 
tember 15,  he  took  up  a  position  on  the  west  side  of  Antietam 
Creek,  between  that  stream  and  Sharpsburg.  On  the  next 
morning  Jackson  reached  him  with  part  of  the  troops  which 
had  captured  Harper's  Ferry,  but  even  then,  so  great  had  been 
his  losses,  his  whole  force  did  not  amount  to  more  than  forty 
thousand  men.  But  he  occupied  a  very  strong  position  on 
rocky  heights,  with  his  right  and  centre  on  Antietam  Creek 
and  his  left  resting  on  the  Potomac  Eiver.  The  few  fords  of 
the  stream  were  difficult  to  cross,  but  there  were  four  stone 
bridges,  three  of  which  were  strongly  defended  by  batteries  and 
rifle-pits.  McClellan's  advance  reached  the  cast  side  of  the 
Antietam  on  the  same  afternoon,  but  not  in  sufficient  force  to 
make  an  attack.  During  the  next  morning  the  rest  of  the 
Union  army  arrived,  and  preparations  were  made  for  battle. 
The  upper  bridge,  marked  No.  1  in  the  map,  was  found  to  be 
unguarded,  and  over  this  Hooker's  corps  crossed  in  the  after- 
noon of  the  16th.  A  sharp  skirmish  took  place,  which  lasted 
until  dark,  when  both  armies  rested  for  the  night.  The  two 
lines  lay  so  near  each  other  that  six  Confederates  were  captured 
by  the  Union  pickets.  The  men  did  not  sleep  much,  for  there 
were  frequent  alarms  during  the  night,  and  when  morning 
dawned  both  sides  were  ready  to  renew  the  fight.  Between  the 
two  were  open  fields  and  cornfields,  and  here  and  there  a  patch 
of  woods. 

During  the  night  General  Mansfield's  corps  crossed  by  the 
same  bridge  and  took  a  position  about  a  mile  behind  Hooker's 
troops.  At  dawn  the  battle  opened  furiously  and  raged  all  along 
the  line  with  varying  success,  the  Union  forces  at  one  time 
advancing  a  little  and  then  falling  back  again  before  the  Con- 
federate fire.     Many  of  the  Union  troops  were  the  same  men 


1862.] 


HOOKER   WOUNDED. 


285 


who  had  retreated  with  Pope  from  Manassas,  but  they  had  con- 
fidence in  Hooker  and  kept  to  their  work  with  a  will.  Across 
a  cornfield,  over  fences,  and  into  the  woods  beyond  they  drove 
the  enemy,  closing  up  their  shattered  lines  and  cheering  as 
they  went.  But  at  the  edge  of  the  woods  they  were  met  by 
fresh  troops,  who  poured  a  volley  of  musketry  into  their  ranks, 
and  as  they  fell  back  sullenly,  leaving  the  fields  covered  with 
their  dead  and  dying,  the  Confederates  pressed  them  back  in 
turn  with  loud  yells.  Again  fresh  brigades  of  Union  troops 
drove  their  foes  through 
fields  and  into  the  woods, 
but  the  Confederates  still 
kept  up  a  deadly  fire. 
General  Hartsuff  was  soon 
severely  wounded,  and 
General  Mansfield,  whose 
corps  had  come  into  the 
fight,fell  mortally  wound- 
ed. General  Hooker  saw 
the  necessity  of  taking  the 
woods,  from  which  the 
musketry  fire  grew  hotter 
and  hotter.  He  rode  for- 
ward to  a  little  hill,  dis- 
mounted and  went  to  the 
front  on  foot.  Having  seen  all  he  wished,  he  returned  to  his 
horse  and  remounted.  He  was  a  conspicuous  sight,  for  he  rode 
a  white  horse,  and  he  had  gone  but  a  few  paces  when  he  was 
shot  by  a  ball  through  the  foot.  Three  men  fell  close  beside 
him.  He  kept  on  his  horse  for  a  few  minutes,  but  pain  soon 
forced  him  to  leave.  Shouting  his  orders  to  carry  the  woods 
and  hold  them,  he  was  carried  from  the  field  just  as  Sumner 
came  up  with  his  corps.  General  Sedgwick's  division  was. in 
advance.  That  gallant  soldier  did  his  best  to  force  back  the  Con- 
federate line,  and  succeeded  in  winning  the  woods  as  far  as  the 
Dunker  Church,  seen  near  the  middle  of  the  map,  but  again  the 
enemy  rallied  and  attacked  in  force,  and  his  division  was  driven 
back  in  confusion,  and  he  hi-mself  was  three  times  wounded. 

At   one   o'clock   everything  looked   gloomy.     Hooker  was 
wounded  and  Mansfield  killed,  and  their  corps  were  too  badly 


Edwin  V.  Sumner. 


286  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.— ANTIET AM.  [1862. 

cut  up  to  be  relied  upon;  and  Sumner,  who  had  also  lost  heavily, 
was  unable  to  advance.  A  lull  took  place  in  the  fight,  for  the 
Confederates  on  their  side  seemed  unable  to  advance.  But 
soon  after  Franklin's  corps  came  upon  the  field,  and  the  fresh 
troops  dashed  forward  and  drove  the  enemy  from  the  fields  and 
woods  in  gallant  style.  Franklin  wished  to  push  further,  but 
Sumner  thought  the  movement  too  dangerous.  When  night 
fell  the  Union  troops  held  the  ground  they  had  won,  but  the 
Confederates  were  still  in  force  in  their  front.  Both  sides  were 
nearly  worn  out  by  the  long  and  terrible  struggle,  and  the 
ground  which  had  been  won  and  lost  many  times  during  the 
day  was  thickly  strewn  with  the  dreadful  evidences  of  the  fight. 

While  the  battle  had  been  raging  so  furiously  on  the  right 
of  the  Union  line,  what  had  been  doing  on  the  left,  where  Gene- 
ral Burnside  was  in  command?  General  McClellan  had  ordered 
Burnside  to  hold  himself  in  readiness  to  take  the  bridge  (No. 
3)  in  his  front  and  to  drive  the  enemy  from  the  heights  beyond. 
From  early  dawn  both  Porter,  who  was  in  the  Union  centre, 
and  Burnside,  on  the  left,  had  kept  up  a  cannonade  on  the  ene- 
my's positions  across  the  creek.  The  Confederates  replied,  and 
one  of  their  first  shots  went  through  a  house  where  Burnside 
had  his  headquarters,  covering  him  and  his  staff  officers  with  a 
shower  of  plaster. 

About  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  McClellan  ordered 
Burnside  to  take  the  bridge,  carry  the  hills  in  front,  and  ad- 
vance toward  Sharpsburg;  but  he  attacked  so  cautiously,  to  save 
his  men,  that  it  was  nearly  one  o'clock  before  he  was  able  to 
cross.  He  then  advanced  slowly  up  the  hills  in  front,  and  by 
four  o'clock  had  driven  the  Confederates  nearly  to  Sharpsburg. 
But  the  close  of  the  battle  on  the  Union  right  enabled  Lee  to 
send  reinforcements  from  that  part  of  the  field,  and  Burnside 
was  soon  forced  back  nearly  to  the  bridge,  where  the  pursuit 
was  stopped  by  the  fire  of  the  Union  artillery  on  the  east  side 
of  the  Antietam.  Darkness  soon  set  in  and  ended  the  battle  in 
this  part  of  the  field  also.  It  is  thought  that  if  Burnside  had 
succeeded  in  crossing  earlier,  while  the  fight  was  raging  on  the 
Union  righc,  Lee,  unable  to  spare  any  troops  from  that  part  of 
the  field,  would  certainly  have  been  captured  with  his  army; 
for  if  Burnside  had  got  to  the  rear  of  Sharpsburg,  Lee  would 
have  been  cut  off  from  the  ford  of  the  Potomac. 


mt]  LEE'S  RETREAT.  287 

Both  parties  slept  on  their  arms,  ready  to  renew  the  fight 
in  the  morning.  The  Union  troops  slept  where  darkness  found 
them,  but  the  Confederates  drew  their  lines  during  the  night  a 
little  nearer  to  Sharpsburg.  The  Union  loss  during  the  day 
was  about  twelve  thousand  five  hundred;  that  of  the  Confeder- 
ates was  probably  nearly  the  same. 

General  McClellan  concluded  that  his  army  was  not  in  a 
condition  to  renew  the  battle  on  the  18th,  so  the  day  was  spent 
in  removing  the  wounded,  burying  the  dead,  collecting  strag- 
glers, and  making  preparations  to  open  the  fight  again  on 
Friday,  the  19th;  but  when  Friday  came  there  was  no  enemy 
to  attack;  Lee  had  crossed  the  river  during  the  night  and  was, 
with  all  that  was  left  of  his  army,  safe  in  Virginia.  Part  of 
General  Porter's  corps  was  sent  in  pursuit  across  the  Potomac, 
but  after  advancing  a  short  distance  it  was  attacked  by  the  rear 
guard  of  the  Confederates  under  A.  P.  Hill  and  driven  back 
across  the  river  with  great  loss. 

Thus  ended  the  battle  of  Antietam,  called  by  the  Confeder- 
ates the  battle  of  Sharpsburg.  It  is  generally  looked  upon  as  a 
victory  for  the  Union,  because  it  ended  Lee's  invasion  of  Mary- 
land and  forced  him  back  into  Virginia;  but  it  was  really  a 
drawn  battle,  for  neither  side  had  gained  anything  on  the  night 
of  the  17th.  General  Lee  fought  the  battle  with  about  forty 
thousand  men,  all  of  whom  were  engaged  in  the  fight.  McClel- 
lan had  under  his  command  more  than  twice  as  many,  but  only 
about  fifty-five  thousand  took  part  in  the  battle.  General 
McClellan,  in  his  report,  estimates  the  Confederate  army  at 
ninety-seven  thousand,  and  his  belief  in  Lee's  superior  numbers 
was  probably  one  of  the  principal  reasons  which  induced  him 
not  to  continue  the  battle  on  the  morning  of  the  18th.  His 
failure  to  do  this  has  been  severely  criticised,  and  it  is  generally 
thought  that  Lee's  army  might  have  been  captured  or  destroyed 
had  he  done  so.  But  McClellan  says  that  his  troops  were  not  in 
fit  condition  to  fight  again  on  the  next  day;  that  they  were 
overcome  by  fatigue,  that  the  supply  trains  were  in  the  rear, 
that  ammunition  was  nearly  out,  and  that  many  of  the  men 
were  suffering  from  hunger.  Indeed,  both  armies  were  unfit 
for  a  further  struggle,  and  while  McClellan  waited  to  recruit 
his  men  near  the  scene  of  the  battle,  Lee  retired  to  "Winchester 
for  the  same  purpose.     Lee's  entire  loss  during  the  campaign 


SOUTH  MOUNTAIN— ANTIETAM.  [1862. 

in  Maryland  was  about  twenty  thousand  men.  He  also  lost 
thirteen  cannon,  fifteen  thousand  small-arms,  and  thirty-nine 
flags. 

Among  the  incidents  of  the  battle  of  Antietam  is  a  story 
told  of  General  Sumner.  Having  occasion  to  send  an  aid  to 
one  of  the  most  exposed  parts  of  the  field  during  the  thickest 
of  the  fight,  he  selected  his  son,  then  a  captain  on  his  staff,  for 
the  duty.  Knowing  the  danger  he  would  pass  through,  and 
feeling  that  he  might  never  see  him  again,  the  old  general  em- 
braced him  and  said,  "  Good-by,  Sammy."  "  Good-by,  father," 
was  the  answer,  and  Sammy,  who  was  only  twenty-one  years 
old,  rode  away.  He  came  back  safe,  and  the  fond  father  met 
him  with  a  shake  of  the  hand  and,  "How  d'ye  do,  Sammy?" 
as  if  he  had  not  seen  him  for  weeks. 

Another  story  is  told  of  a  Union  soldier,  a  private  of  the 
First  Maryland  regiment.  A  gentleman  visiting  one  of  the 
hospitals  at  Alexandria,  where  the  wounded  were  sent,  found 
him  sitting  by  a  window  with  a  bandage  over  his  eyes  and  sing- 
ing at  the  top  of  his  voice,  "  I'm  a  bold  sojer  boy." 

"What's  your  name,  my  good  fellow?"  said  the  gentleman. 

"Joe  Parsons,  sir." 

"What  is  the  matter  with  you?" 

"Blind,  sir,  blind  as  a  bat;  shot  at  Antietam;  both  eyes  at 
one  clip." 

Poor  Joe,  who  was  only  twenty  years  old,  had  been  in  the 
front,  and  had  been  shot  by  a  ball  directly  through  both  eyes, 
destroying  his  sight  forever;  yet  he  seemed  to  be  as  happy  as  a 
lark. 

"It  might  ha' been  worse,"  he  said.  "I'm  thankful  I'm 
alive,  sir." 

At  the  gentleman's  request,  he  told  his  story. 

"  I  was  hit,  yer  see,  and  it  knocked  me  down.  I  lay  there 
all  night,  and  in  the  morning  the  fight  began  again.  I  could 
stand  the  pain,  but  the  balls  were  flyin'  all  round,  and  I  wanted 
to  get  away.  At  last  I  heard  a  feller  groanin'  beyond  me. 
'  Hello ! '  says  I. 

"  '  Hello  yourself,'  says  he. 

"  'Who  be  yer?'  says  I,  'a  Rob?' 

"  'You're  a  Yank,'  says  he. 

"  'So  I  am,'  says  I.     '  What's  the  matter  with  you?' 


1862.]  JEB  STtTAttTS  BIDE.  289 

"  '  My  leg's  smashed/  says  he. 

"  '  Canyer  see?' 

"  'Yes.' 

"  'Well,'  says  I,  'you're  a  Reb,  but  will  you  do  me  a  little 
favor? ' 

"  'I  will,'  says  he,  'if  I  kin.' 

"  '  Well,  old  Butternut,  I  can't  see  nothin'.  My  eyes  is  shot 
out,  but  I  kin  walk.  Come  over  yere  and  let's  git  out  o'  this. 
You  pint  the  way  and  I'll  tote  yer  off  on  my  back.' 

"  '  Bully  for  you,'  says  he. 

"  So  we  managed  to  git  together,  and  shook  hands  on  it.  I 
took  a  wink  outer  his  canteen  and  he  got  on  to  my  back.  I 
did  the  walkin'  for  both,  and  he  did  the  navigatin'.  An'  if  he 
didn't  pilot  me  straight  to  a  Beb  colonel's  tent,  a  mile  away, 
I'm  a  liar.  But  the  colonel  knew  I  couldn't  do  any  more 
shootin',  and  didn't  care  to  keep  me;  so,  after  three  days,  I 
came  down  here  with  the  wounded  boys,  where  I'm  doing  pretty 
well." 

"But  you  will  never  see  the  light  again,  my  poor  fellow," 
said  the  gentleman. 

"That's  so;  but  can't  help  it,  yer  notice.  That's  my  misfor- 
tin',  not  my  fault,  as  the  ole  man  said  of  his  blind  hoss — '  I'm  a 
bold  sojer  boy,'  "  and  the  gentleman  left  poor  blind  Joe  singing 
away  as  merrily  as  if  nothing  had  happened. 

While  McClellan  still  remained  in  Maryland,  General  Jeb 
Stuart,  with  fifteen  hundred  cavalry,  recrossed  the  Potomac  at 
Williamsport  and  rode  entirely  around  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac again,  as  he  had  done  before  in  the  Peninsula.  He  went 
as  far  as  Chambersburg,  in  Pennsylvania,  where  he  destroyed  a 
large  quantity  of  military  stores,  including  five  thousand  mus- 
kets, burned  the  railroad  buildings  and  machine-shops  and 
several  trains  of  loaded  cars,  and  recrossed  safely  into  Virginia. 

McClellan  took  possession  of  Harper's  Ferry  after  Lee  had 
gone  down  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  By  the  2d  of  November 
the  whole  army  had  crossed  into  Virginia  and  begun  its  march 
southward,  passing  down  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  while  the 
Confederates  marched  west  of  it.  McClellan  had  then  more 
than  a  hundred  thousand  men,  while  Lee's  force  amounted  to 
about  eighty  thousand.  On  the  7th  of  November  the  Union 
army  was  near  Warrenton.     Late  that  night,  during  a  heavy 


290 


SOTJTB  MOUNTAIN.— ANTIETAM. 


[1862. 


snow-storm,  General  McClellan  was  sitting  in  his  tent  talking 
with.  General  Burnside,  when  a  messenger  arrived  from  Wash- 
ington with  a  despatch,  which  he  handed  to  General  McClellan. 
McClellan  opened  and  read  it,  and,  without  any  change  of  coun- 
tenance or  of  voice,  handed  the  paper  to  General  Burn  side,  say- 
ing calmly:  "Well,  Burnside,  you  are  to  command  the  army." 
It  was  an  order  from  the  Secretary  of  "War,  by  direction  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  that  General  McClellan  be 
relieved  of  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  and  that 
General  Burnside  should  take  his  place. 

General  Burnside  was  loth  to  take  the  command.  Twice 
before  the  position  had  been  offered  him,  but  he  had  declined  it 
because  he  did  not  feel  that  he  was  competent  to  manage  so  large 

an  army.  Besides,  he  had 
confidence  in  McClellan, 
who  was  his  friend,  and  he 
expressed  the  opinion  that 
"he  could  command  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  bet- 
ter than  any  other  general 
in  it."  But  the  orders  of 
the  government  obliged 
him  to  obey,  and  he  re- 
luctantly took  the  com- 
mand (November  10). 
McClellan  wrote  a  farewell 
address,  which  was  read  to 

Ambrose  E.  Burnside.  ftjg  soldierS.    In  it  he  Said: 

"In  parting  from  you,  I  cannot  express  the  love  and  gratitude 
I  bear  you.  As  an  army  you  have  grown  up  under  my  care. 
In  you  I  have  never  found  doubt  or  coldness.  The  battles  you 
have  fought  under  my  command  will  proudly  live  in  our 
nation's  history.  *  *  *  We  shall  ever  be  comrades  in  support- 
ing the  constitution  of  our  country  and  the  nationality  of  its 
people." 

The  soldiers  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  loved  "Little 
Mac"  better  than  any  commander  they  ever  had,  and  rousing 
cheers  were  given  for  him  when  he  took  his  departure.  The 
old  regiments  who  had  served  under  him  longest  were  especially 
attached  to  him,  and  even  the  new  ones,  who  had  lately  come 


1862.]  LITTLE  MAG.  291 

to  the  army,  shared  in  the  feeling.  "  Come  back,  Little  Mac," 
was  the  almost  universal  cry,  as  he  rode  by  for  the  last  time. 
His  picture  was  pinned  up  in  barracks,  songs  in  his  honor 
were  sung  around  every  camp-fire,  and  the  health  of  Little  Mac 
was  drunk  at  every  feast.  For  a  long  time  after  his  removal 
from  command  the  soldiers  kept  up  a  firm  faith  that  he  would 
yet  come  back  to  lead  them.  But  it  was  not  to  be.  Though 
McClellan  had  done  noble  duty  in  building  up  the  army  and 
making  it  ready  for  the  great  work  it  had  yet  to  do,  and  though 
he  was  very  able  in  planning  campaigns,  he  was  wanting,  his 
enemies  said,  in  executive  ability — that  is,  the  power  of  carrying 
out  his  plans  and  making  them  a  success.  Mr.  Lincoln,  it  is 
said,  had  long  felt  this,  but  was  loth  to  remove  him,  and  it  was 
not  until  after  the  seemingly  unnecessary  delay  in  following  up 
the  enemy  after  Antietam  that  he  finally  concluded  to  do  it.  The 
President  never  gave  any  reason  for  doing  it,  but  he  was  doubt- 
less influenced  by  Mr.  Chase  and  Mr.  Stanton,  both  of  whom 
were  jealous  of  McClellan's  popularity,  and  by  the  opinion  of 
General  Halleck,  who  had  shown  much  opposition  to  McClellan, 
as  he  had  also  to  Grant  in  the  West.  But  the  friends  of  Mc- 
Clellan say,  on  the  contrary,  that  he  was  right  in  refusing  to  move 
after  the  battle  of  Antietam,  and  that  Halleck  was  wrong  in 
saying  that  all  the  supplies  he  asked  for  had  been  sent  to 
him.  This  seems  to  be  true,  for  even  when  the  army  finally 
moved,  many  of  the  men  were  obliged  to  march  to  Warrenton 
barefoot.  The  feeling  in  regard  to  Halleck's  action  in  the 
matter  is  shown  in  the  following  scpiib,  which  went  the  rounds 
of  the  newsjmpers  at  the  time: 

"A  Question  which  Major-General  Halleck  won't  Answer. 

If  before  Corinth  you  lay  thirty  days, 
Pleasing  the  foe  ■with  masterly  delays, 

Failing,  at  last,  to  beat  'em; 
How  long  should  you  have  given  'Lutle  Mac,' 
To  make  all  ready  for  a  grand  attack, 

From  the  day  he  won  Antietam?" 


CHAPTER  XXV. 
FREDERICKSBURG. 

Burnside's  New  Plan.— The  March  to  Fredericksburg.— Lee  Holds  the  Hills.— Pon- 
toon Bridge-building.— Sharpshooters.— The  Town  Shelled.— A  Dangerous  Cross- 
ing.—The  Gratbacks  Hunted  out  of  their  Holes.— A  Brave  Drummer-Boy.— The 
Army  Crosses  the  River.— Battle  of  Fredericksburg.— Hooker's  Gallant  Assault. 
— Burnside  Retreats.— Confederate  Hopes.— Burnside  Resigns,  and  Hooker  Takes 
Command  of  the  Army.— Winter  Quarters.— Sad  Condition  of  the  Confederates. — 
The  Ladies  at  Work.— Confederate  Manufactures.— Wooden  Shoes.— Southern 
Books.— A  Home-made  Christmas.— Picket  Talks.— My  Mother!  my  Mother!— Jackson's 
Resigned! 

LEE  had  sent  abtrat  half  his  army,  under  Longstreet,  to 
Culpepper  to  head  off  McClellan's  advance  toward  Rich- 
mond in  that  direction,  but  had  kept  Jackson  in  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley  so  as  to  still  threaten  Maryland.  McClellan  was 
just  about  moving  between  these  two  parts  of  the  Confederate 
army  when  he  was  deprived  of  the  command.  If  he  had  been 
permitted  to  do  this,  it  probably  would  have  proved  fatal  to 
Lee,  for  he  would  have  been  unable  to  combine  his  forces  in 
time  to  oppose  the  Union  army,  which,  says  McClellan,  was 
never  "in  such  excellent  condition  to  fight  a  great  battle." 

Burnside,  who  took  command  on  the  10th  of  November, 
acted  still  more  cautiously  than  McClellan.  His  army  had 
then  grown  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  men,  but 
instead  of  moving  forward  to  bring  on  a  battle  with  Lee,  as 
McClellan  had  intended  to  do,  he  spent  several  days  in  reor- 
ganizing it,  and  then  made  an  entirely  new  plan  of  operations. 
His  plan  was  to  march  to  Fredericksburg,  and  then  to  move 
from  there  toward  Richmond.  Lee  saw  through  his  design,  and 
while  the  Union  army  marched  toward  Fredericksburg  on  the 
upper  side  of  the  Rappahannock,  the  Confederates  moved  in 
the  same  direction  on  the  other  side.  Burnside  had  several 
days  the  start,  and  the  advance  of  his  army,  under  Sumner, 
reached  Falmouth,  nearly  opposite  Fredericksburg,  on  the  17th 
of  November.  The  bridges  had  been  destroyed,  but  there  were 
several  fords,  and  Sumner  wanted  to  cross  at  once  and  take 
possession  of  the  heights  behind  the  townj  but  Burnside  did 


1862.]  PONTOON  BRIDGES.  293 

not  think  it  best  to  do  it  so  soon.  The  consequence  was  that 
before  the  end  of  November  Lee's  army  had  possession  of  all 
the  hills,  and  had  strongly  fortified  them,  so  that  it  was  impos- 
sible for  the  Union  army  to  take  them  without  fighting  a  great 
battle. 

By  the  10th  of  December  Burnside  was  ready  to  cross  the 
river,  and  during  the  night  of  that  day  about  a  hundred  and 
fifty  cannons  were  posted  on  Stafford  Hills  to  protect  the  men 
who  were  to  build  the  pontoon  bridges — that  is,  floating  bridges 
built  on  flat-bottomed  boats,  or  anything  which  will  bear  up  a 
road  platform.  The  engineers  began  to  work  during  a  heavy 
fog  early  the  next  morning,  but  the  Confederate  riflemen,  who 
were  posted  behind  stone  houses  and  walls  along  the  river,  soon 
discovered  them  and  kept  up  so  hot  a  fire  that  they  could  not 
work.  It  was  soon  seen  that  little  could  be  done  unless  the 
sharpshooters  could  be  driven  away,  and  at  ten  o'clock  the  bat- 
teries were  opened  on  the  town.  Fifty  rounds  were  fired  from 
each  gun,  but  it  was  so  foggy  that  for  a  long  time  no  one  could 
see  that  any  damage  was  done;  but  by  and  by  columns  of 
smoke  rising  above  the  mist  showed  that  the  town  had  been  set 
on  fire  by  the  shells.  Another  effort  to  build  the  bridges  failed, 
and  at  last  volunteers  were  called  for  to  cross  over  in  boats 
and  drive  out  the  riflemen.  A  Michigan  and  a  Massachusetts 
regiment  were  selected  for  the  dangerous  duty.  The  men  ran 
down  the  steep  river-bank  and  hid  for  a  while  behind  the  piles 
of  lumber  collected  there  to  build  the  bridge  with,  exchanging 
shots  with  the  sharpshooters  opposite,  whom  they  could  now 
easily  see.  In  a  few  minutes  they  made  a  rush  for  the  pontoon 
boats,  twenty-five  or  thirty  men  getting  into  each,  and  pushed 
off.  The  oarsmen  bent  to  their  oars,  while  crack!  crack!  crack! 
went  the  rifles  all  along  in  front  of  them.  But  the  men  stooped 
low,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  boats  were  under  the  shelter  of  the 
opposite  side.  Another  rush  up  the  opposite  bank,  and  the  gray- 
backs  scampered  out  of  their  holes  like  so  many  rats,  and  away 
they  went  through  the  streets  followed  by  the  bluebirds.  Many 
of  them  got  away,  but  more  than  a  hundred  were  sent  back  on 
the  pontoon  boats  as  prisoners. 

Among  those  who  crossed  to  attack  the  sharpshooters  was 
the  drummer  of  the  Michigan  regiment,  who  was  just  twelve 
years  old  that  day.     He  jumped  into  one  of  the  boats  with  the 


294 


FREDERICKSB  URG. 


[1862. 


rest,  with  his  drum  slung  on  his  back,  but  his  captain  ordered 
him  back,  saying,  "You  are  too  small  for  such  business." 

"May  I  help  push  off  the  boat,  Captain?"  asked  the  boy. 

"  Yes,"  was  the  answer. 

But  the  boy,  not  to  be  cheated  out  of  going,  purposely  clung 
to  the  side  of  the  boat  when  it  slid  off  into  the  stream,  and  was 
dragged  into  the  water,  and  the  men  had  to  take  him  in.  Sev- 
eral in  his  boat  were  killed,  and  as  he  went  up  the  river-bank 
his  drum  was  torn  in  pieces  by  a  piece  of  shell,  but  he  bravely 
seized  a  musket  belonging  to  one  of  his  dead  comrades  and 


Scene  in  Fredericksburg  after  the  Bombardment. 


fought  until  the  Confederates  were  all  driven  out  of  their 
hiding-places.  He  was  much  praised  for  his  gallantry,  and  was 
given  a  beautiful  new  drum;  but  friends  who  took  an  interest 
in  him  procured  his  release  from  the  army,  gave  him  a  home, 
and  had  him  educated. 

The  bridges  were  now  finished,  and  on  the  11th  and  12th  the 
army  crossed  the  river.  General  Franklin  had  meanwhile 
built  two  more  bridges  further  down  the  river,  near  the  site 
of  the  house  where  George  Washington  lived  in  his  childhood, 
and  marched  a  great  part  of  his  troops  over,  and  during  the 
night  of  December  12  the  Army  of  the  Totomac  lay  on  its  arms 


1862.] 


BOMBARDMENT  OF  FREDERICKSBURG. 


295 


ready  to  open  the  battle  in  the  morning.  Fredericksburg  pre- 
sented a  sad  appearance.  Many  buildings  had  been  badly  dam- 
aged during  the  bombardment,  several  houses  were  still  smok- 
ing, and  the  streets  were  filled  with  furniture,  which  had  been 


Plan  of  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg. 

carried  out  of  the  dwellings  after  they  had  been  set  on  fire  by 
the  shells.  The  few  inhabitants  who  remained  in  their  houses 
had  taken  refuge  in  their  cellars,  and  fortunately  none  had  been 
killed. 


296 


FREDERICKS!!  URO. 


[1862. 


The  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  now  composed  of  three  grand 
divisions,  under  the  command  of  Generals  Sumner,  Hooker, 
and  Franklin.  The  position  of  each  division  after  crossing  the 
river  and  the  sites  of  the  several  bridges  ave  clearly  shown  in 
the  map.  The  Confederates  occupied  the  range  of  hills  back 
of  the  town,  their  artillery  commanding  all  the  open  ground  in 
front  over  which  the  Union  troops  would  have  to  pass.  Stone- 
wallJackson  commanded  on  their  right  and  Longstreet  on  their 
left.  The  morning  was  very  foggy,  and  it  did  not  clear  until 
about  eleven  o'clock.  General  Franklin  then  opened  the  battle 
by  sending  General  Meade  to  attack  Jackson,  but  through  some 

misunderstanding  of  orders  he 
used  only  a  small  part  of  his  fifty- 
five  thousand  men.  Meade  forced 
the  enemy  from  their  first  lines 
and  reached  the  top  of  the  hills, 
but  not  being  aided  in  time,  was 
driven  back  with  great  loss. 

In  the  mean  time  Sumner  on  the 
right  had  attacked  the  enemy  in 
his  front.  Just  back  of  the  town 
is  a  height  called  Marye's  Hill, 
from  Mr.  Marye,  whose  residence 
~.  was  on  it,  which  was  crowned  by 
Kg  strong  batteries,  among  them  the 
famous  Washington  Artillery,  of 
New  Orleans.  Along  its  base  is  a 
sunken  road  with  a  stone  wall  bor- 
dering the  side  nearest  the  city. 
In  this  road,  which  was  unknown  to  the  Union  commanders, 
was  posted  a  strong  body  of  Confederate  riflemen,  protected  by 
the  wall,  which  was  about  four  feet  high.  Several  attempts 
were  made  to  storm  this  hill,  but  in  vain.  The  plain  in  front 
of  the  hill  was  swept  by  the  fire  from  the  Confederate  batteries, 
which  made  great  gaps  in  the  Union  lines  and  compelled  the 
survivors  to  fall  back  in  disorder,  amid  the  yells  of  the  enemy. 
Again  the  lines  were  formed,  and  again  the  brave  boys  in  blue 
rushed  into  the  iron  hail.  The  stone  wall  was  reached,  and  in 
an  instant  a  fringe  of  flame  leaped  from  the  rifles  behind  it, 
while  batteries  placed  at  the  ends  poured  grape  and  canister  into 


Washington  Artillery. 


1862.]  DESPERATE  ASSAULTS.  297 

the  surging  mass  in  its  front.  A  canopy  of  smoke  hung  like  a 
pall  over  the  struggle,  hiding  it  from  view,  but  in  a  few  min- 
utes the  Union  lines,  crushed  by  the  dreadful  fire,  came  reeling 
back  and  sought  shelter  in  a  little  ravine  that  crossed  the  plain. 
A  third  assault  was  repulsed  in  like  manner,  and  most  of  the 
Union  generals  saw  that  it  would  be  useless  to'  sacrifice  more 
lives  in  attacking  so  strong  a  position. 

General  Burnside  had  watched  the  struggle  from  a  hill  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river.  When  he  saw  the  result  of  the 
attacks  he  rode  down  to  General  Hooker,  whose  division  had 
not  yet  crossed  the  river,  and  exclaimed  in  desperation:  "  That 
crest  must  be  carried  to-night."  Under  his  orders  Hooker 
crossed  over,  but  after  consulting  with  the  other  officers,  all  of 
whom  agreed  with  him  that  such  an  attack  would  be  only  send- 
ing the  men  to  certain  death,  he  rode  back  and. tried  to  per- 
suade Burnside  not  to  try  it  again.  But  Burnside  insisted,  and 
ordered  a  fresh  assault.  Hooker  began  with  a  fierce  artillery 
fire,  hoping  to  silence  the  Confederate  batteries  on  the  hill,  and 
about  sunset  ordered  General  Humphrey  to  assault  the  hill  with 
four  thousand  men.  The  soldiers  laid  aside  their,  knapsacks 
and  overcoats,  and  moved  forward  with  empty  muskets,  ex- 
pecting to  storm  the  works  with  the  bayonet.  They  rushed 
forward  bravely,  and  reached  the  stone  wall,  where  they  were 
met  with  a  fire  such  as  had  thrown  their  comrades  into  confu- 
sion before,  and  the  whole  column  was  driven  swiftly  back, 
more  than  seventeen  hundred  of  their  number  being  left  behind 
killed  or  wounded.  Night  now  put  an  end  to  the  battle,  in 
which  the  Unionists  had  lost  more  than  twelve  thousand  men, 
while  the  Confederate  loss  had  been  little  more  than  five  thou- 
sand. General  Burnside  was  determined  to  continue  the  fight 
in  the  morning,  and  was  only  prevented  from  doing  so  by  the 
opinion  of  all  his  principal  officers  that  the  enemy's  position  was 
too  strong  to  be  taken.  The  army  lay  two  days  in  and  around 
Fredericksburg,  and  on  the  night  of  December  15,  during  a 
violent  storm  of  wind  and  rain,  recrossed  the  river  and  again 
occupied  its  old  position  on  Stafford  Hills. 

When  the  news  of  the  victory  reached  Eichmond  there  was 
great  rejoicing,  and  it  was  fully  expected  that  General  Leo 
would  destroy  Burnside's  army,  which  was  supposed  to  be  in  a 
very  perilous  position  with  the  river  at  its  back.    Indeed,  Burn- 


298 


FREDERICKSB  UHG. 


[1862. 


side  was  in  much  the  same  predicament  as  Lee  himself  had 
been  at  Antietam,  although  he  was  much  stronger  in  numbers 
than  the  Confederate  general  had  been  at  that  time;  and  Lee 
has  been  blamed  nearly  as  much  as  McClellan  for  not  following 
up  his  success  on  the  following  clay.  But  Lee  says  that  Burn- 
side's  attack  had  been  so  easily  repulsed  that  he  expected  it 
would  be  renewed  on  the  next  day,  and  he  thought  it  best  to 
keep  his  strong  position,  where  he  was  sure  of  victory,  rather 
than  go  down  into  the  plain,  where  his  men  would  have  been 
under  the  fire  of  the  Union  guns  from  Stafford  Hills.  He 
knew,  too,  that  Burnside  was  stronger  than  he  was,  and  he  did 

not  know  how  much  he 
had  suffered  in  the  at- 
tack. 

About  a  fortnight 
later  General  Burnside 
planned  another  move- 
ment against  Kichmond, 
intending  to  cross  the 
river  lower  down,  when 
he  was  suddenly  called  to 
Washington  by  President 
Lincoln.  The  President 
told  him  that  he  had 
heard  from  officers  in  his 
army  that  there  was  much 
dissatisfaction  among  the 
troops,  and  that  it  was  feared  that  another  large  forward 
movement  would  end  in  a  great  disaster.  General  Burnside 
was  thus  placed  in  a  very  unfortunate  position :  he  had  the  con- 
fidence of  neither  his  officers  nor  his  men,  yet  he  was  kept  by 
the  government  in  a  command  for  which  he  felt  he  was  not 
fitted,  and  which  he  had  been  obliged  to  take  against  his 
wishes.  To  his  honor  be  it  said  that  he  took  upon  himself  all 
the  responsibility  for  the  great  disaster  which  had  befallen  the 
Union  arms.  But  his  disagreements  with  his  officers  continu- 
ing, he  prepared  shortly  afterward  an  order  dismissing  from 
the  army  some  of  its  principal  generals,  including  Generals 
Hooker  and  Franklin,  and  asked  the  President  either  to  approve 
it  or  to  accept  his  resignation.     As  it  was  impossible  to  dismiss 


Joseph  E.  Hooker. 


1862.]  WINTER  QUAETEB8.  299 

all  the  best  officers  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  General  Burn- 
side's  resignation  was  accepted  and  the  command  was  given  to 
Major-General  Joseph  Hooker.  At  the  same  time  General 
Franklin  was  relieved  from  duty  and  General  Sumner  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  command  of  the  Department  of  the  Missouri, 
but  the  latter  soon  after  died.  General  Burnside  was  given 
command  of  the  Department  of  the  Ohio.  The  Army  of  the 
Potomac  now  went  into  winter  quarters  on  the  banks  of  the 
Rappahannock,  where  the  soldiers  built  huts  and  cabins  and 
made  themselves  as  comfortable  as  they  could.  The  Confeder- 
ates followed  their  example,  and  the  two  armies  lay  inactive, 
within  sight  of  each  other,  but  with  the  river  rolling  between 
them,  until  spring  once  more  made  military  movements  prac- 
ticable. 

But  how  different  was  the  condition  of  these  two  great 
bodies  of  men!  The  Union  army  was  as  well  provided  for  as 
any  which  ever  took  the  field:  it  was  furnished  with  good 
clothing,  warm  blankets,  and  the  best  of  food,  and  what  the 
government  did  not  supply  the  soldiers  was  sent  to  them  by 
sanitary  commissioners  and  kind  friends  at  home.  Indeed,  so 
careful  were  people  at  home  of  their  brave  defenders  in  the 
field  that  not  only  necessities  but  even  luxuries,  such  as  sweet- 
meats and  preserves,  were  freely  sent  to  them.  The  govern- 
ment carried  all  these  things  to  the  army  free  of  expense,  tak- 
ing care  only  that  liquor  should  not  be  sent.  But  a  great  deal 
was  smuggled  into  the  camps  in  queer  ways,  packed  in  clothing 
or  in  little  flasks  hidden  in  loaves  of  bread  or  of  cake.  A  story 
is  told  of  an  Irish  woman  in  a  Western  city  who  went  through 
the  market  one  day  looking  for  a  very  large  chicken.  On  being 
shown  one,  she  asked  if  it  would  hold  a  pint  flask.  The  market- 
man  was  curious  to  know  why  she  wanted  a  chicken  for  such  a 
purpose,  and  she  finally  explained  to  him  that  she  intended  to 
cook  the  chicken,  put  the  flask  in  full  of  whiskey  for  stuffing, 
and  send  it  to  her  husband  in  camp. 

The  sutlers,  or  men  who  follow  the  army  to  sell  provisions 
and  other  things  to  the  soldiers,  often  supplied  them  with 
liquor,  and  the  soldiers  were  very  clever  about  hiding  it  from 
the  officers.  One  day  a  soldier  wasuseen  coming  from  the  sut- 
ler's with  a  tin  coffee-pot  in  his  hand. 

"What  have  you  there?"  asked  an  officer  whom  he  met. 


300  Fredericksburg.  [m& 

"Milk,  sir,"  replied  the  soldier. 

"  Let  me  see.     Pour  out  a  little." 

The  soldier  did  as  he  Avas  ordered,  and  the  officer,  seeing 
milk  run  out,  said  "All  right,"  and  passed  on.  But  when  the 
man  reached  his  tent,  he  showed  his  friends,  who  were  awaiting 
him  there,  his  coffee-pot  full  of  whiskey.  He  had  stopped  the 
bottom  of  the  spout  with  a  cork  and  filled  only  that  part  with 
milk. 

The  poor  Confederates,  on  the  contrary,  had  very  few  of 
the  comforts  of  life.  Many  of  them  were  without  suitable 
clothing,  hats,  or  shoes,  and  few  of  them  had  decent  blankets 
to  protect  them  from  the  sleet  and  snow.  Their  food,  too,  was 
seldom  what  it  should  be.  So  many  of  the  Southern  ports  had 
been  closed  during  the  year  either  by  capture  or  by  the  strict 
enforcement  of  the  blockade  that  fewer  supplies  than  usual  had 
been  brought  in.  General  Lee  had  Imped  to  make  up  for  this 
by  captures  in  Maryland  and  elsewhere  in  the  North,  but  the 
campaign  had  proved  a  failure  and  the  shattered  army  had 
fallen  back  into  Virginia  only  to  be  called  upon  for  fresh  efforts 
against  its  better-clad,  better-fed,  and  better-armed  enemy.  It 
is  almost  impossible  to  toll  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  privates 
who  trudged  through  that  terrible  campaign  that  lasted  from 
the  time  of  leaving  Richmond  until  it  went  into  winter  quar- 
ters on  the  Rappahannock.  In  an  appeal  to  the  people  of  the 
South  for  aid  they  were  likened  to  those  endured  by  the  French 
in  their  dreadful  retreat  from  Moscow.  This  appeal  was  bravely 
answered,  especially  by  the  ladies.  Carpets  were  taken  up  from 
the  floors  of  hotels  and  private  houses  and  made  into  overcoats 
and  blankets,  and  beds  were  stripped  of  their  coverings  and 
sent  to  the  soldiers  on  the  Rappahannock.  Women,  young  and 
old,  rich  and  poor,  went  to  knitting  socks  and  mittens,  and 
many  plans  were  devised  for  furnishing  shoes  and  hats.  Much 
food,  too,  was  collected  and  sent  to  the  suffering  soldiers  at  the 
risk  of  want  at  home;  for  the  South  had  already  begun  to  feel 
severely  the  privations  brought  on  by  the  war,  and  only  the  rich 
could  buy  anything  more  than  the  bare  necessities  of  life. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  some  of  the  means  taken  to  supply 
the  daily  wants  of  the  people,  thus  nearly  cut  off  from  the 
world  around  them.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  South- 
ern States  had  been  engaged  almost  exclusively  in  planting  and 


1862.]  CONFEDERATE  WANTS.  301 

had  depended  on  Europe  and  on  the  Northern  States  for  manu- 
factured articles.  They  therefore  felt  greatly  the  need  of  such 
useful  things  as  cloth,  leather,  and  paper.  All  sorts  of  ways 
were  devised  to  supply  these.  Old-fashioned  looms  were  set  up 
and  ladies  wove  homespun  cloths  in  their  homes.  Cotton  cloths 
were  easily  made,  but  wool  was  scarce,  and  the  fur  of  rabbits 
and  other  animals  was  sometimes  used  instead  of  it.  A  lady  in 
South  Carolina  made  very  handsome  cloths,  says  a  Charleston 
newspaper,  with  a  warp  of  cotton  and  a  woof  or  filling  of  rab- 
bit's or  of  coon's  fur.  Leather  is  hard  to  make,  requiring  skill 
and  time,  so  the  people  set  about  finding  substitutes  for  it.  A 
Savannah  newspaper  of  the  time  says:  "It  is  only  by  custom 
and  convenience  that  we  are  confined  to  leather  in  the  making 
of  our  shoes.  Any  substance  which  will  exclude  water  and 
which  will  endure  the  rubs  and  thumps  given  by  the  foot  will 
do  for  shoes.  A  hatter  can  make  an  excellent  shoe  out  of  the 
same  felt  and  by  the  same  process  which  he  uses  in  making 
hats;  using  one  other  mould  and  some  waterproof  mixture  in  the 
sole  to  keep  out  the  wet."  It  then  goes  on  to  show  how  a  far- 
mer may  make  very  good  shoes  out  of  an  old  wool  hat,  and  how 
soft  shoes  for  a  lady  may  be  made  out  of  a  pair  of  squirrel-skins. 
It  suggests,  too,  that  a  coarse  linen  called  osnaburg  may  be  pre- 
pared for  upper  leathers  by  boiling  it  in  linseed  oil  and  wax, 
and  then  blackening  it,  and  that  good  soles  maybe  made  out  of 
old  saddle-skirts,  leather  machine-belts,  or  double  thicknesses 
of  heavy  cloth,  with  thin  pieces  of  white  oak  or  hickory  or 
of  birch  bark  between  them.  A  factory  for  making  wooden 
shoes  was  opened  in  Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  the  soles  being 
made  of  gum  or  poplar  wood  and  the  uppers  of  leather. 

Paper,  too,  was  very  difficult  to  get.  As  soon  as  the  stock  on 
hand  was  used  up,  efforts  were  made  to  manufacture  it;  but 
only  a  very  poor  kind  was  made  at  first,  the  color  of  which  soon 
changed  to  a  splotchy  gray,  much  like  mildewed  paper.  Peo- 
ple had  to  use  for  letter-writing  common  brown  paper  and  wall- 
paper, and  even  newspapers  were  printed  on  straw  paper  and 
paper  hangings.  Some  of  the  books  published  in  the  South 
during  the  war  are  curiosities  of  literature;  but  they  were  con- 
sidered at  the  time  very  creditable  specimens  of  home-made 
work.  They  were  sold  at  very  high,  prices,  but  such  was  the 
demand  for  them  that  the  few  booksellers  could  not  keep  a  suf- 


302 


FREDERICKSB  UBG. 


[1862. 


ficient  supply.     The  general  price  was  $5,  Confederate  money, 
a  volume. 

The  Confederate  Government  had  then  issued  so  much  paper 
money  that  a  dollar  could  be  exchanged  for  only  ten  cents  in 
gold,  but  as  it  was  the  only  money  to  be  had  it  was  taken  freely 
by  everybody  and  so  was  really  worth  a  little  more  than  that. 
Wood  could  be  bought  for  $15  a  cord,  and  almost  everybody 
could  keep  warm.  Turkeys  were  $10  to  $12  a  piece,  so  that 
all  but  the  very  poor  had  their  Christmas  feast  that  year;  but 
luxuries  were  very  high  and  only  the  wealthiest  could  afford 
wines.  Home-made  liquors,  such  as  apple,  peach,  and  black- 
berry brandies,  sold  for  $30  a  gallon.  Fire-crackers,  which 
every  Southern  boy  expected  at  Christmas,  were  worth  $5  a 
pack,  so  many  of  the  children  had  to  go  without. 

That  Cbristmas  was  an  unfortunate  one  also  for  the  colored 
people.  They  had  always  been  accustomed  to  look  forward  to 
the  holiday  season — the  week  between  Christmas  and  New 
Year's — as  an  exceptional  time,  when  they  were  free  to  do  as 
they  pleased.  On  Christmas  morning  it  had  been  their  wont 
to  go  to  Massa's  or  Missus's  house  for  their  "Chris'mus  gifs," 
which  had  been  duly  provided  in  every  household,  and  which 
were  given  out  with  a  lavish  band  amid  the  smiles  and  thanks 
of  Uncle  Ned  and  Aunt  Dinah.  But  this  year,  for  the  first 
time,  few  presents  were  made,  for  Uncle  Ned's  shoes  had  to  go 

to  the  soldiers  and  Dinah's 
head  -  handkerchief  —  the 
gay  striped  or  plaided  hand- 
kerchief which  the  South- 
ern negroes  so  loved  to 
bind  round  their  hair — 
was  missing,  for  none  could 
be  bought  in  the  Confed- 
eracy. Indeed,  the  Christ- 
mas of  1862  was  a  home- 
made holiday  in  the  Con- 
federacy, and  was  enlivened 
by  few  of  the  comforts  to 
which  the  people  had  been  accustomed.  But  worse  was  in 
store  for  them,  and  in  the  two  following  years  they  learned  to 
look  back  upon  it  with  something  of  pleasure,  as  a  time  when 


ML 


Newspaper  Boat. 


1862.]  PICKET  TALES.  303 

they  had  no  thought  of  being  reduced  to  the  straits  with  which 
they  had  then  grown  sadly  familiar. 

During  most  of  the  time  when  the  two  armies  thus  lay  with 
only  the  river  between  them,  the  pickets  talked  freely  with  each 
other  while  watching  along  the  banks.  They  also  exchanged 
newspapers  and  other  things,  sending  them  across  on  little  boats 
with  paper  sails,  and  sometimes  even  made  visits.  One  day  a 
Confederate  hailed  some  Union  pickets  from  across  the  river: 

"I  say,  Yanks,  if  a  fellow  goes  over  there  will  you  let  him 
come  back  again?" 

The  Union  men  answered  "  Yes,"  and  he  proceeded  to  pad- 
dle himself  across  on  a  log.  In  reply  to  a  question,  he  said  he 
belonged  to  the  "  Georgia  Legion."     One  of  the  pickets  said, 

"I  met  quite  a  number  of  your  boys  at  South  Mountain." 

"I  suppose  so,  if  you  were  there,"  replied  the  Confederate, 
his  face  growing  very  sad.  "We  left  many  of  our  boys  there, 
among  them  my  poor  brother  Will.  It  was  a  very  hot  place 
for  a  while,  and  we  had  to  leave  it  in  a  hurry." 

''That's  so,  Georgia,  your  fellows  fought  well  there,  but 
the  Keystone  boys  pressed  you  hard.  By  the  way,  I  have  a 
likeness  here"  (takingit  out  of  his  pocket)  "  that  I  picked  up  the 
next  morning.  I  have  carried  it  ever  since.  You  may  know 
something  about  it." 

He  handed  the  picture  to  the  Confederate,  who,  as  soon  as 
he  glanced  at  it,  pressed  it  to  his  lips,  exclaiming,  "My  mother! 
my  mother!" 

When  he  had  recovered  from  his  emotion  he  said  that  his 
brother  had  the  picture  and  must  have  lost  it  in  the  fight.  He 
then  asked  the  name  of  the  Union  man  who  had  so  kindly  given 
him  his  mother's  picture,  saying:  "  There  may  be  better  times 
soon,  and  we  may  know  each  other  better." 

He  took  from  his  pocket  a  small  Bible  in  which  to  write  the 
address,  when  another  of  the  Union  men,  who  had  -not  before 
said  anything,  cried  out, 

"Let  me  see  that  book!  It  looks  like  one  I  lost  at  Bull 
Eun!" 

"There's  where  I  got  it,  Mr.  Yank,"  said  the  Confederate, 
as  he  handed  it  to  the  speaker. 

The  Union  man  hastily  opened  it  and  read  on  the  fly-leaf: 
"My  Christmas  gift  to  Alex. ,  December  25, 1860.     Ella." 


304 


FREDERICKS!!  URO. 


[1862. 


"Ah!"  said  he,  "if  I  could  only  see  the  giver  of  that  book 
to-day,  there's  but  one  other  gift  I  would  Avant." 

"  What's  that,  Alex.  ?"  asked  one  of  his  comrades. 

"  The  rebellion  played  out  and  my  discharge  in  my  pocket." 

Just  then  a  horseman  was  seen  coming  and  the  Confederate 
paddled  himself  back  across  the  river,  for  the  Union  pickets 
had  been  ordered  not  to  talk  with  those  on  the  other  side.  But 
this  order  was  hard  to  obey,  and  when  there  were  no  officers  in 
sight  the  men  daily  called  out  to  each  other,  cracked  jokes,  and 
even  met  half  way  to  exchange  tobacco,  coffee,  and  other 
soldiers'  necessities. 

"How  are  you,  Rebs?"  called  out  a  Union  picket  one  cold 
morning,  a<  he  blew  his  fingers  to  keep  them  warm. 

"Oh!  not  very  well  to-day,"  was  the  reply.  "We  have  suf- 
fered an  awful  loss.     Jackson  has  resigned." 

"Jackson  resigned!"  cried  the  astonished  Yankee.  "Why, 
how  was  that?" 

"  They  removed  his  commissary-general*  and  he  wouldn't 
stand  it;  so  he  resigned." 

"His  commissary-general?    Who  was  he?" 

"Banks,"  was  the  answer. 

The  Union  picket  felt  the  sarcasm,  for  it  was  a  common 
joke  among  the  Confederates  that  Jackson  captured  all  his  sup- 
plies from  Banks,  and  he  turned  away  and  asked  no  more 
questions. 

*  A  commissary -general  is  the  officer  having  general  charge  of  provid- 
ing troops  with  provisions,  clothing,  tents,  etc. 


Spherical  Case  Shot. 


CHAPTEE  XXVI. 
BRAGG  IN  KENTUCKY.— MURFREESBORO. 

Grant  and  Sherman.— Grant  again  in  Command.— Sherman's  Cotton  Monet.— General 
Bragg  Succeeds  Beauregard.— Morgan's  Raid  into  Kentucky.— Forest  in  Tennes- 
see.—Kirby  Smith  Enters  Kentucky.— Battle  of  Richmond.— Bragg  Captures  Union 
Troops  at  Mumfordsville.— a  Long  Wagon  Train.— Buell  Marches  against  Bragg. 
Battle  of  Perryville.— Bragg  Retreats  into  Tennessee.— Rosecrans  Succeeds 
Buell.— Battle  of  Iuka.— Van  Dorn  Attacks  Corinth.— Defeated  by  Rosecrans.— 
Pemberton  Succeeds  Van  Dorn.— Bragg  at  Murfreesboro.— President  Davis's  Visit. 
—Cowardly  Soldiers.— The  Battle  of  Murfreesboro.— Bragg's  Retreat. 

WE  left  General  Halleck  at  Corinth,  which  place  he  had 
entered  May  30, 1862,  after  its  evacuation  by  General  Beau- 
regard. General  Halleck  did  not  follow  Beauregard,  who  had 
taken  a  new  position  at  Tupelo,  in  Mississippi,  but  soon  scat- 
tered his  army  in  various  directions.  General  Sherman,  who 
was  then  in  General  Thomas's  division,  thinks  that  this  army 
was  one  of  the  best  we  ever  had,  and  that  Halleck  might  easily 
have  marched  it  to  Mobile  or  to  Vicksburg  and  solved  with  it 
the  whole  question  of  the  war  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  He 
thinks  that  it  was  Halleck's  plan  to  make  a  forward  campaign 
with  it,  but  that  he  was  prevented  by  interference  from  Wash- 
ington. However  this  may  have  been,  General  Pope  was  called 
to  Washington,  General  Buell  was  sent  with  the  army  of  the 
Ohio  toward  Chattanooga,  General  Thomas  being  sent  with 
him,  and  General  McClernand  was  ordered  to  move  toward 
Memphis.  About  this  time  General  Grant,  who  had  become 
tired  of  his  position,  asked  for  thirty  days'  leave  of  absence, 
which  was  given  him.  General  Sherman,  who  knew  that  he 
was  chafing  under  Halleck's  slights,  called  on  him  and  found 
him  all  ready  for  a  start.  He  asked  him  why  he  was  going 
away. 

"  Sherman,  you  know,"  replied  Grant.  "  You  know  that  I 
am  in  the  way  here.  I  have  stood  it  as  long  as  I  can,  and  can 
endure  it  no  longer." 

"Where  are  you  going  to?"  asked  Sherman. 

"St.  Louis." 

"Have  you  any  business  there?" 

"Not  a  bit," 


306  BEAOG  IN  KENTUCKY.— MURFREESBORO.         [1862. 

Sherman  then  begged  him  to  stay,  told  him  that  if  he  went 
away  events  would  go  right  along  and  he  would  be  left  out,  but 
that  if  he  remained  some  happy  accident  might  restore  him  to 
favor  and  give  him  his  true  place.  Grant  listened  to  this  friendly 
advice,  and  told  Sherman  that  he  would  think  it  over,  and  that 
he  would  at  any  rate  put  off  his  journey  a  few  days.  Shortly 
afterward  Sherman  received  a  note  from  him,  saying  that  he 
had  concluded  to  take  his  advice;  and  thus  Grant's  services 
were  probably  spared  to  the  Union.  Soon  afterward  Grant 
was  given  the  command  of  Western  Tennessee,  with  headquar- 
ters in  Memphis,  and  in  July,  when  General  Halleck  was  called 
to  Washington  to  take  McClellan's  place  as  general-in-chief  of 
the  armies  of  the  United  States,  Grant  succeeded  him  in  com- 
mand of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee.  At  the  same  time  Sher- 
man was  sent  to  take  Grant's  place  in  Memphis. 

When  General  Sherman  arrived  at  Memphis  he  found  the 
city  "dead,"  as  he  says;  stores,  churches,  and  schools  were 
closed,  and  no  business  was  doing.  He  caused  all  to  be  opened, 
and  started  the  theatres  and  other  places  of  amusement  again, 
and  in  a  short  time  Memphis  began  to  look  prosperous  once 
more.  Sherman  also  restored  the  city  government  and  set  up  a 
good  police.  Business  men  were  much  troubled  for  want  of 
good  money,  and  the  Common  Council  of  the  city  proposed  to 
issue  a  kind  of  paper  currency,  some  bills  as  low  as  ten  cents, 
to  help  merchants  to  make  change.  But  General  Sherman  told 
them  this  would  be  unlawful,  and  that  they  would  soon  be 
supplied  with  the  "postal  currency"  which  the  United  States 
government  was  about  to  issue.  For  use  until  this  arrived,  he 
suggested  a  novel  kind  of  small  change.  Cotton  was  then 
worth  fifty  cents  a  pound,  and  he  proposed  that  the  people 
should  put  it  up  in  pounds  and  parts  of  a  pound,  so  as  to  make 
packages  of  five,  ten,  twenty-five,  and  fifty  cents'  worth.  He 
told  them  that  in  Mexico  soap  is  money,  and  that  people  do 
their  marketing  with  cakes  of  soap.  "If  cotton  is  king,"  he 
asked,  "why  not  use  cotton  for  money?" 

Meanwhile  the  Confederates  had  not  been  idle.  The  disas- 
ters they  had  met  with  at  New  Orleans  and  in  the  West  during 
the  early  part  of  the  year  had  roused  them  to  new  energy. 
Every  man  who  could  carry  a  musket  was  forced  into  the  ranks, 
even  boys  of  sixteen  years  of  age  being  taken  from  school  and 


1862.] 


MORGAN  IN  KENTUCKY. 


307 


sent  to  the  camp.  Their  armies  were  therefore  soon  largely 
increased,  and  order  and  discipline  was  enforced  in  the  most 
rigid  way.  General  Beauregard's  health  having  failed,  he  was 
relieved  from  command  of  the  army  at  Tupelo,  and  General 
Bragg  appointed  in  his  place.  Bragg  was  an  officer  of  great 
ability  and  energy,  but  was  not  as  popular  as  Beauregard  among 
his  troops. 

In  July  John  H.  Morgan,  the  Confederate  cavalry  leader, 
made  a  raid  into  Kentucky.  He  issued  a  proclamation,  calling 
on  the  young  men  of  Kentucky  to  join  him,  saying  that  he  had 
come  as  the  liberator  of  the  people,  and  that  his  force  was  the 
advance  of  the  Confederate  armies  which  were  coming.  He  was 
soon  joined  by  several  hun- 
dred recruits,  and  with  more 
than  two  thousand  horse- 
men roamed  through  the 
State,  causing  the  greatest 
excitement,  and  plundering 
and  destroying  public  prop- 
erty as  he  went.  He  cut 
telegraph  wires,  burned  rail- 
way bridges  and  tore  up 
rails,  and  advanced  so  near 
to  Cincinnati  as  to  cause 
great  fear  lest  he  shoi^d  at- 
tack it.  At  the  same  time 
General  INT.  B.  Forrest,  the 
same  who  escaped  with  his 
cavalry  from  Fort  Donelson,  made  a  raid  through  Tennessee, 
captured  at  Murfreesboro  General  T.  L.  Crittenden  and  a  large 
quantity  of  stores,  and  seriously  threatened  Nashville. 

When  General  Buell  moved  toward  Chattanooga,  General 
Bragg  marched  in  the  same  direction  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Tennessee  River.  Bragg,  who  had  about  sixty  thousand  well- 
trained  men,  reached  the  goal  first,  and  in  the  latter  part  of 
August  set  out  to  invade  Kentucky.  His  object  in  this  was  to 
draw  off  the  Union  forces  from  Western  Tennessee  and  Ala- 
bama, and  to  take  Louisville  if  possible.  The  advance  of  his 
army,  led  by  General  E.  Kirby  Smith,  entered  Kentucky 
through  the  Cumberland  Mountains  from  East  Tennessee,  and 


Braxton  Bragg. 


308  BRAGG  IN  KENTUCKY.— MURFREESBORO.         [1862. 

marched  northward  through  the  State.  Near  Richmond  he 
fought  a  battle  with  a  superior  Union  force  under  General  Man- 
son.  The  Union  troops,  many  of  whom  were  raw  volunteers, 
were  defeated  after  a  three  hours'  fight  and  utterly  routed, 
leaving  nine  pieces  of  artillery  and  ten  thousand  small-arms  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The  Confederate  cavalry  got  in  the 
rear  of  the  flying  Unionists  and  took  about  five  thousand  pris- 
oners, among  them  being  General  Manson,  who  was  wounded. 
Smith  pushed  on  rapidly  with  his  victorious  army  to  Lexing- 
ton. The  people  of  the  State  were  greatly  alarmed,  the  Legis- 
lature fled  from  Frankfort  to  Louisville,  and  many  of  the  banks 
sent  their  specie  there  for  safety.  Smith  pressed  on  toward 
Cincinnati,  but  finding  that  that  city  had  been  put  in  a  thorough 
state  of  defence  by  General  Lew  Wallace,  he  turned  to  Frank- 
fort, the  State  capital,  and  waited  the  coming  of  Bragg  with  the 
main  army.  Bragg  crossed  the  Cumberland  River  with  the 
corps  of  Generals  Hardee  and  Leonidas  Polk,  and  entered  Ken- 
tucky on  the  5th  of  September,  at  the  same  time  that  General 
Lee  was  crossing  the  Potomac  into  Maryland. 

"When  Bragg  began  to  move  northward  Buell  at  first  thought 
he  intended  to  attack  Nashville,  and  marched  to  Lebanon  so  as 
to  get  between  him  and  that  city;  but  he  soon  found  that  the 
Confederates  were  bound  for  Louisville,  and  hastened  in  that 
direction.  At  Mumfordsville,  a  station  on  the  line  of  the  Lou- 
isville and  Nashville  Railroad,  Bragg  captured  a  Union  force  of 
about  four  thousand  men,  and  on  the  1st  of  October  joined 
Kirby  Smith  at  Frankfort.  Assuming  that  Kentucky  was  one 
of  the  Confederate  States,  he  appointed  a  provisional  governor 
and  began  to  force  into  his  army  all  men  able  to  bear  arms,  just 
as  had  been  done  under  the  conscription  law  in  the  States 
controlled  by  the  Confederates.  His  cavalry  scoured  the  whole 
country,  collecting  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  and  hogs.  Goods  of 
all  kinds  were  taken  from  the  stores,  worthless  Confederate 
paper  money  being  given  in  exchange,  and  the  farmers  were 
robbed  of  their  wagons  to  carry  southward  the  spoil  of  their 
own  meat-houses  and  granaries.  It  is  said  that  the  wagon 
train  that  moved  out  of  Kentucky  was  forty  miles  long,  and 
that  this  was  only  a  small  part  of  the  property  taken  while  the 
army  of  "liberators"  (as  Bragg  called  his  forces)  was  in  the 
State. 


1862.] 


BATTLE  OF  PEBBTVILLE. 


309 


While  Bragg  was  collecting  supplies  Buell  had  marched  on 
to  Louisville,  where  his  army  was  soon  increased  to  a  hundred 
thousand  men.  He  then  began  to  move  toward  Bragg,  who 
fell  back  toward  Tennessee,  guarding  his  great  trains,  which 
moved  slowly.  On  the  7th  of  October,  finding  that  Buell  was 
close  upon  him,  Bragg  turned,  and  on  the  next  day  gave  him 
battle  at  Perryville.  The  fight  was  a  desperate  one  and 
lasted  until  night  put  an  end  to  it.  It  resulted  in  a  repulse  at 
all  points  of  the  Confederates,  who  hastily  retreated  during  the 
night,  leaving  behind  much  of  the  property  they  were  carrying 
off.  In  this  battle,  which  is  commonly  called  the  battle  of  Per- 
ryville, but  sometimes  of  Chaplin's  Hills,  the  Union  loss  was 
4,348,  and  that  of  the 
Confederates  probably 
nearly  the  same.  Bragg 
succeeded  in  getting  into 
Tennessee  with  a  large 
part  of  his  spoil.  The 
United  States  Govern- 
ment, thinking  that  Gen- 
eral Buell  might  have 
destroyed  his  army  if  he 
had  pursued  him  more 
vigorously,  soon  after  re- 
moved him  from  com- 
mand and  appointed  Gen- 
eral Rosecrans  in  his 
place.  The  name  of  the 
army  was  changed  at  the  same  time  from  Army  of  the  Ohio 
to  that  of  Army  of  the  Cumberland. 

When  General  Bragg  had  moved  northward  to  invade  Ken- 
tucky, Generals  Van  Dorn  and  Price,  who  had  been  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Mississippi  Eiver,  were  ordered  across  to  look 
after  Grant.  They  collected  their  forces  at  Holly  Springs  in  Mis- 
sissippi, and  soon  had  there  an  army  of  forty  thousand  well-drilled 
men.  Grant  had  his  headquarters  at  Corinth,  but  part  of  his 
army  was  at  Memphis  and  other  parts  were  guarding  the  rail- 
roads in  various  places.  In  the  early  part  of  September  Price 
seized  Iuka,  a  little  place  southeast  of  Corinth.  Grant  thought 
he  intended  to  cross  the  Tennessee  to  go  and  join  Bragg,  and 


Don  Carlos  Buell. 


310  BRAGG  IN  KENTUCKY— MURFREESBORO.         [1862. 

sent  General  Eosecrans  after  him.  A  battle  was  fought  near 
Iuka,  September  19,  in  which  about  seven  hundred  men  Avere 
lost  on  each  side,  and  Price  retreated  during  the  night  and 
joined  Van  Dorn  again.  Van  Dorn  soon  after  marched  with 
his  whole  force  against  Corinth,  which  had  been  strongly  forti- 
fied by  Generals  Halleck  and  Grant.  This  was  then  a  very 
important  place,  for  it  was  the  key  to  the  Union  line  of  defence 
through  Tennessee,  which  lay  between  the  armies  of  Van 
Dorn  and  Bragg,  and  prevented  their  junction.  An  immense 
amount  of  stores,  of  which  the  Confederates  were  much  in 
need,  was  also  collected  there.  The  place  was  then  under  com- 
mand of  General  Eosecrans,  who  had  about  twenty  thousand 
men.  The  Confederates  attacked  Eosecrans,  who  had  taken  a 
position  three  or  four  miles  from  Corinth,  early  in  the  morning 
of  October  3,  and  after  a  hard  fight  captured  two  guns  and  drove 
his  troops  within  their  intrenchments.  Van  Dorn  calculated 
on  capturing  the  whole  army  the  next  day,  and  he  telegraphed 
to  Richmond  that  he  had  won  a  victory.  But  he  did  not  know 
how  strong  the  Union  works  were.  The  attack  was  renewed 
early  the  next  morning,  and  the  Confederates,  though  mowed 
down  with  grape  and  canister,  assaulted  with  such  desperate 
valor  that  they  drove  the  Unionists  out  of  one  of  their  forts  and 
pushed  their  way  to  the  public  square  in  the  middle  of  the 
town.  A  hand-to-hand  fight  took  place  in  the  streets,  and  even 
in  the  yard  of  General  Rosecrans's  headquarters;  but  soon  more 
Union  troops  came  to  the  rescue,  and  the  Confederates  were 
driven  in  headlong  flight  out  of  the  works.  By  noon  they  were 
repulsed  on  all  sides,  and  retreated,  leaving  their  dead  and 
wounded  where  they  lay.  Their  loss  was  about  six  thousand, 
while  that  of  the  Unionists,  who  fought  mostly  behind  their 
earthworks,  was  little  more  than  a  third  as  many. 

General  Grant,  supposing  that  Rosecrans  would  win  a  vic- 
tory, had  sent  orders  for  him  to  pursue  the  enemy  at  once, 
while  he  sent  out  other  troops  from  Jackson,  under  General 
Ord,  to  strike  the  Confederates  on  their  flank.  General  Ord. 
attacked  them  in  the  morning  of  October  5,  at  the  Hatchie  River, 
and  captured  two  batteries  and  three  hundred  prisoners.  Gen- 
eral Rosecrans  did  not  pursue  Van  Dorn  at  once,  but  waited 
until  the  next  morning,  when  it  was  too  late,  for  Van  Dorn 
escaped  to  Holly  Springs.     Grant  was  displeased  with  Rosecrans 


1862.] 


BRAGG  AT  MURFREESBORO. 


311 


for  this,  for  lie  thought  that  if  he  had  pursued  hotly  Van  Dorn's 
whole  army  might  have  been  ruined;  and  many  military  writers 
think  the  same.  Soon  after  this  Eosecrans  was  transferred  to 
the  army  of  General  Buell,  of  which  he  was  given  the  command 
when  that  officer  was  removed.  But  the  battle  of  Corinth  was 
regarded  as  a  great  disaster  by  the  Confederates,  and  for  a  time 
it  closed  military  operations  in  that  region.  Van  Dorn  was 
removed  from  his  command  and  his  place  given  to  Lieutenant- 
General  John  C.  Pemberton. 

The  army  of  General  Buell  had  reached  Bowling  Green  in 
the  pursuit  of  Bragg,  when  General  Buell  was  superseded  in 
command  by  General  Rosecrans.  At  that  time  the  Union  gar- 
rison which  had  been  left 
in  Nashville  was  closely 
beset  by  a  Confederate 
force  under  Generals  For- 
rest and  Breckenridge; 
but  they  were  driven  away 
by  General  Negley,  then 
in  command  there.  Gen- 
eral Rosecrans  hastened 
forward  to  relieve  the 
place,  which  was  still 
threatened,  but  had  to  re- 
pair the  railroad  to  Louis- 
ville, over  which  his  sup- 
plies were  sent,  and  it  was 
not  until  the  end  of  No- 
vember that  his  whole  army  was  collected  at  Nashville.  In  the 
meantime  Bragg  had  marched  through  Knoxville  to  Chatta- 
nooga, when  he  was  again  ordered  to  move  northward.  He 
marched  toward  Nashville  until  he  reached  Murfreesboro, 
about  forty  miles  from  that  city,  and  took  there  a  strong  posi- 
tion, which  he  fortified  by  intrenchments.  Bragg  was  visited 
in  Murfreesboro  by  President  Davis,  and  the  occasion  was  cele- 
brated by  many  balls  and  parties.  Among  the  festivities  was 
the  marriage  of  General  John  H.  Morgan,  of  Kentucky,  to  Miss 
Ready,  of  Murfreesboro.  The  ceremony  was  performed  by 
Bishop  Polk,  of  Louisiana,  who  for  the  time  laid  aside  his  uni- 
form for  his  clerical  dress,  in  the  presence  of  President  Davis 


William  S.  Rosecrans. 


312 


BRAGG  IN  KENTUCKY.— 3IURFREESB0R0. 


[1862. 


and  the  principal  officers  of  the  army.  It  is  said  that  the  wed- 
ding guests  danced  on  a  floor  covered  with  Union  flags  as  a  car- 
pet, to  show  how  much  they  despised  the  once  loved  emblem  of 
our  common  country.  If  the  story  is  true,  it  is  probable  that 
those  who  took  part  in  so  childish  a  proceeding  have  since  had 
cause  to  be  ashamed  of  it. 

Bragg  did  not  suppose  that  Rosecrans  would  move  against 
him  in  winter,  but  the  latter  had  been  gathering  provisions  in 
Nashville  and  making  ready  for  a  campaign.  The  Confeder- 
ate cavalry  under  Morgan  and  others  were  very  active,  some- 
times capturing  a  supply  train,  and  sometimes  a  detachment  of 
troops.  Morgan  at  one  time  took  fifteen  hundred  prisoners, 
surprising  them  in  their  camp  early  one  morning.     Cowardly 

men  often  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  captured  in  this 
way,  for  they  were  generally 
parolled  by  the  enemy — 
that  is,  permitted  to  go  after 
promising  not  to  serve 
again  until  exchanged  for 
Confederate  prisoners — and 
they  thus  got  home  without 
the  danger  of  deserting. 
General  Rosecrans  deter- 
mined to  put  an  end  to  this 
business,  if  possible;  so  be 
collected  about  fifty  men  who  had  disgracefully  surrendered,  and 
putting  night-caps  adorned  with  red  tassels  on  their  heads,  had 
them  paraded  through  the  streets  of  Nashville,  preceded  by  drums 
and  fifes  playing  the ■" Rogue's  March."  The  sidewalks  were 
crowded  with  people,  who  hooted  them  as  they  passed,  and  the 
cowards  were  glad  enough  when  they  had  finished  their  march. 
Other  punishments,  some  of  which  are  well  shown  in  the  picture, 
were  inflicted  in  the  various  armies  during  the  war  for  drunken- 
ness, thieving,  and  other  bad  conduct. 

On  the  day  after  Christmas,  1862,  General  Rosecrans  began 
the  march  from  Nashville  toward  Murfreesboro,  in  a  cold, 
drenching  rain-storm,  and  on  tbe  30th  of  December,  after  heavy 
skirmishing  with  the  Confederate  cavalry  and  other  outposts, 
he  took  up  a  position  on  Stone  River,  about  four  miles  from 


Punishments  in  the  Army. 


1862.]  THOMAS  STANDS  FIRM.  $\% 

Murfreesboro.  Bragg's  army  occupied  a  long  line  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  between  it  and  the  town.  Stone  River,  which 
thus  separated  the  two  armies,  is  only  a  shallow  stream,  fringed 
with  cedars.  The  lines  were  so  near  each  other  that  their 
camp-fires  were  in  plain  sight,  and  both  lay  on  their  arms  that 
night  in  expectation  of  a  great  struggle  on  the  morrow.  The 
Union  army  numbered  forty-three  thousand;  the  Confederates 
probably  very  nearly  the  same,  though  Bragg  says  that  he  had 
but  thirty-five  thousand  men  of  all  arms. 

Eosecrans  intended  to  attack  Bragg  early  the  next  morning, 
but  Bragg  did  not  wait  for  him.  As  soon  as  day  dawned  he 
crossed  the  stream  and  furiously  attacked  the  right  of  Rose- 
crans's  army,  which  was  commanded  by  General  McCook.  The 
valley  of  the  river  was  covered  with  a  dense  fog,  and  the  Con- 
federates rushed  upon  the  Union  lines  from  the  woods  so  unex- 
pectedly that  some  of  their  guns  were  captured  before  they 
could  be  fired — the  horses  having  just  before  been  unhitched 
and  led  down  to  the  river  to  drink.  Two  divisions  of  the  right 
wing  were  driven  in  rout  from  the  field,  leaving  their  artillery 
and  many  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  and  the  victo- 
rious Confederates  threw  themselves  with  a  yell  on  the  third 
division.  This  was  commanded  by  General  Philip  Sheridan, 
who  made  a  brave  fight  against  superior  numbers;  but  at  last, 
when  nearly  surrounded,  he  fell  slowly  back,  having  lost  his 
train  and  used  up  all  his  ammunition.  The  right  wing  was 
thus  entirely  crushed,  and  at  eleven  o'clock  it  looked  as  if  all 
of  Rosecrans's  army  would  be  destroyed.  It  had  been  driven 
from  half  the  ground  it  held  in  the  morning,  had  lost  many 
guns  and  prisoners,  and  Bragg's  cavalry  was  in  the  rear  destroy- 
ing its  supply  trains. 

The  brunt  of  the  fight  now  fell  on  General  Thomas,  who 
commanded  the  centre.  He  held  the  Confederates  in  check 
while  Rosecrans  formed  a  new  line  of  defence  in  the  rear.  The 
artillery  was  quickly  posted  on  a  little  hill  where  it  could  sweep 
the  whole  plain,  and  as  the  gray-coats  charged  out  of  the  cedar 
thickets  across  the  open  ground,  they  were  met  with  a  storm 
of  canister  shot  and  lead,  which  hurled  them  back  into  the 
thickets  again.  Again  and  again  they  swept  on,  only  to  be 
driven  back  with  immense  slaughter.  At  last  Bragg  brought 
his  reserve  of  seven  thousand  frosh  men  across  the  river,  and 


314  BRAGG  IN  KENTUCKY.— MURFMEESBOItO.        [1862. 

made  two  more  efforts  to  storm  the  position-,  but  in  yam;  and 
when  night  fell  the  two  armies  lay  where  darkness  overtook 
them,  ready  to  renew  the  fight  in  the  morning. 

While  the  fight  was  raging  in  the  cedar  thickets,  the  birds 
and  small  animals  that  lived  among  them  were  nearly  paralyzed 
with  fright.  Wild  turkeys  ran  between  the  lines  and  tried  to 
hide  among  the  men,  and  many  hopped  over  the  ground  like 
toads,  apparently  as  tame  as  household  pets.  Some  even  sought 
protection  from  the  men  who  were  lying  down  to  escape  the 
cannon-shot,  nestling  under  their  coats  and  creeping  among 
their  legs,  as  if  seeking  a  place  of  safety.  Flocks  of  little  birds, 
too,  fluttered  and  circled  about  the  field  over  the  combatants 
in  a  state  of  bewilderment,  as  if  not  knowing  which  way  to  fly. 

When  night  put  an  end  to  the  fighting,  Bragg  was  sure  of 
victory.  He  telegraphed  to  Eichmond,  "God  has  granted  us  a 
happy  New  Year,"  and  claimed  that  after  a  tea  hours'  battle 
he  had  driven  the  enemy  from  nearly  every  position,  and  had 
captured  four  thousand  prisoners,  thirty-one  pieces  of  artillery, 
and  two  hundred  wagons  and  teams.  He  had  evidently  ex- 
pected to  find  Rosecrans  in  full  retreat  toward  Nashville  in  the 
morning,  and  when  day  dawned  he  was  surprised  to  see  him  in 
order  of  battle.  That  day  (New  Year's)  there  was  little  fight- 
ing, excepting  some  cavalry  skirmishing  and  artillery  firing. 
The  two  armies  watched  each  other  closely,  each  waiting  for 
the  other  to  make  a  move,  and  that  night  they  again  slept  on 
their  arms.  The  next  day  Rosecrans  sent  a  division  across 
Stone  River  to  try  to  cut  Bragg  off  from  Murfreesboro.  Bragg 
sent  Breekenridge  with  orders  to  drive  the  Unionists  back.  He 
partly  succeeded  in  this,  the  Union  troops  being  forced  in  con- 
fusion to  the  river;  but  there  the  Confederates  were  met  by  a 
heavy  artillery  fire,  and  in  twenty  minutes  they  lost  two  thou- 
sand men.  The  Union  men  then  made  a  charge,  forcing  the 
Confederates  back  in  turn,  and  this  ended  the  battle. 

The  morning  of  January  3  opened  with  a  violent  rain- 
storm, which  prevented  further  fighting,  and  during  that  night 
Bragg  left  Murfreesboro  and  retreated  to  Tullahoma.  Rose- 
crans was  too  crippled  to  follow,  and  contented  himself  with 
taking  possession  of  Murfreesboro,  where  the  army  went  into 
winter  quarters.  The  losses  in  these  dreadful  battles  were 
nearly  twenty-five  thousand  men,  of  which  the  Union  loss,  in- 
cluding prisoners,  was  about  fourteen  thousand. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
EMANCIPATION.— CONSCRIPTION. 

The  Union  and  Slavery.— The  Abolitionists.— New  Ideas  about  Slavery.— Massa  Lin- 
kum's  Sojers.— Butler  and  Contrabands.— Fremont's  Proclamation.— Hunter's  Oit- 
der.— President  Lincoln  Proposes  to  Buy  the  Slaves.— His  Letter  on  the  Subject- 
Lincoln  Changes  his  Views  about  Slavery.— His  First  Emancipation  Proclamation.— 
His  Vow.— The  Second  Emancipation  Proclamation.— Its  Effect  in  the  South  and  in 
the  North.— Arbitrary  Arrests.— Spies.— Colored  Soldiers.— The  Conscription  Bill. 
—Drafting.— Riots  in  New  York. 

WHEN  President  Lincoln  took  the  oath  of  office  in  1861, 
he  considered  it  to  be  his  duty  to  save  the  Union  with- 
out reference  to  slavery;  and  it  was  the  general  opinion  through- 
out the  North  that  slavery  as  an  institution  should  not  be 
interfered  with.  There  were  some,  commonly  called  Abolition- 
ists, who  wished  from  the  beginning  to  destroy  slavery  even  at 
the  expense  of  the  Union,  but  they  were  looked  upon  as 
fanatics  by  the  greater  part  of  the  people.  In  the  course  of 
time,  however,  the  question  began  to  be  looked  at  in  an  entirely 
different  light.  It  soon  became  evident  that  slavery  gave 
strength  to  the  Confederacy,  because  slaves  were  used  not  only 
to  raise  food  for  the  soldiers,  thus  permitting  many  white  men 
to  join  the  army  who  without  them  would  have  to  cultivate  the 
plantations  themselves,  but  also  for  building  forts  and  intrench- 
ments,  thus  lightening  the  labor  of  the  soldiers  and  making 
them  better  able  to  fight.  Accordingly,  the  President,  August 
6,  1861,  approved  an  act  to  make  free  all  slaves  used  by  their 
owners  for  military  purposes. 

As  the  war  went  on  many  slaves  escaped  from  their  masters 
and  came  into  the  Union  lines.  They  naturally  expected  to  be 
protected,  for  the  idea  had  grown  up  in  them  that  the  war  was 
on  their  account,  and  for  their  benefit.  This  idea  they  had  got 
partly  from  agents  of  abolition  societies,  and  partly  from  their 
own  masters,  who  in  their  private  talks  and  in  public  meetings 
before  the  war  had  freely  said  that  "the  election  of  Lincoln 
meant  the  abolition  of  slavery.  They  had  therefore  learned  to 
look  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  as  their  coming  saviour,  who  was  to  set 
them  all  free;  and  when  "Massa  Linkum's  sojers"  appeared 


316  EMANCIPATION.— CONSCRIPTION.  [1862. 

they  flocked  iu  great  numbers  to  the  armies,  with  their  wives 
and  their  little  ones,  expecting  to  be  fed  and  taken  care  of.  They 
were  cruelly  disappointed  in  most  cases,  for  some  Union  officers 
refused  to  let  them  come  within  their  lines,  and  some  even  per- 
mitted their  masters  to  search  for  them  in  the  camps  and  to 
carry  them  back  into  slavery.  But  General  Butler,  when  in 
command  at  Fortress  Monroe,  saw  that  the  keeping  of  runaway 
slaves  was  a  military  necessity,  because  in  sending  them  back  to 
their  masters  he  was  giving  the  Confederates  valuable  aid  in 
carrying  on  the  war.  He  therefore  declared  all  such  negroes 
"contraband  of  war" — that  is,  forfeited  by  the  rules  of  war, 
like  any  other  property  captured  from  an  enemy — and  set  them 
at  work  building  fortifications  for  the  Union  instead  of  for 
their  disloyal  masters.  General  Butler's  act  was  approved,  and 
he  was  ordered  to  retain  all  slaves  coming  within  his  lines. 

General  Fremont  went  much  further  than  this.  When  he 
took  control  of  the  Department  of  Missouri  he  issued  an  order 
proclaiming  all  the  slaves  of  rebels  in  arms  in  the  State  of  Mis- 
souri to  be  free.  The  President  did  not  approve  this,  because 
it  was  contrary  to  the  Act  of  Congress  of  August  6,  1861,  and 
ordered  him  to  so  change  it  as  to  make  it  include  only  slaves 
used  for  military  purposes.  When  General  David  Hunter  took 
command  at  Hilton  Head,  he  issued  a  similar  order  (May  9, 
1862)  declaring  free  all  slaves  in  Georgia,  Florida,  and  South 
Carolina;  but  this  also  was  annulled  by  order  of  President  Lin- 
coln, who  thought  that  the  time  had  not  yet  come  for  such 
action. 

In  the  spring  of  1862  (March  6)  President  Lincoln  sent  a 
message  to  Congress  proposing  that  the  United  States  should 
aid  any  State  willing  to  agree  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  by  buy- 
ing its  slaves.  In  making  this  proposal  he  had  especially  in 
mind  the  Border  States,  in  which  there  were  comparatively  few 
slaves.  He  believed  that  if  this  plan  could  be  carried  out  it 
would  end  the  war,  beeause  slavery  was  the  real  tie  which  bound 
the  Border  States  to  the  other  slave  States,  and  if  those  States 
should  become  free  States  their  interests  would  naturally  lead 
them  to  ally  thomselves  with  the  other  free  States.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln also  argued  that  it  would  be  cheaper  to  buy  and  pay  for 
the  slaves  at  a  fair  rate  than  to  continue  the  war.  His  ideas  on 
this  point  are  well  shown  in  the  following  letter,  never  before 


1862.]  LINCOLN'S  LETTER.  317 

printed,  which  was  written  by  him  a  week  after  his  message 
was  sent  to  Congress: 

Executive  Mansion,        ) 
Washington,  March  14,  1862.  J 

Hon. , 

IT.  S.  Senate. 
My  dear  Sik:  As  to  the  expensiveness  of  the  plan  of  gradual  emanci- 
pation with  compensation,  proposed  in  the  late  message,  please  allow  me 
one  or  two  brief  suggestions. 

Less  than  one  half  day's  cost  of  this  war  would  pay  for  all  the  slaves 
in  Delaware  at  four  hundred  dollars  per  head: 

Thus,  all  the  slaves  in  Delaware,  by  the  census  of  1860,  are. . .        1,798 

400 

Cost  of  the  slaves $719,200 

One  day's  cost  of  this  war $2,000,000 

Again,  less  than  eighty-seven  days'  cost  of  this  war  would,  at  the  same 
price,  pay  for  all  in  Delaware,  Maryland,  District  of  Columbia,  Kentucky, 
and  Missouri. 

Thus,  slaves  in  Delaware 1,798 

"Maryland 87,188 

"       "  District  of  Columbia 3,181 

"  Kentucky 225,490 

"      "Missouri 114,965 

432,622 
400 

Cost  of  the  slaves $173,048,800 

Eighty-seven  days'  cost  of  the  war $174,000,000 

# 

Do  you  doubt  that  taking  the  initiatory  steps  on  the  part  of  those 
States  and  this  District  would  shorten  this  war  more  than  eighty-seven 
days,  and  thus  be  an  actual  saving  of  expense? 

A  word  as  to  the  time  and  manner  of  incurring  this  expense.  Suppose, 
for  instance,  a  State  devises  and  adopts  a  system  by  which  the  institution 
absolutely  ceases  therein  by  a  named  day — say  January  1st,  1882.  Then  let 
the  sum  to  be  paid  to  such  State  by  the  United  States  be  ascertained  by  tak- 
ing from  the  census  of  1860  the  number  of  slaves  within  the  State,  and  mul- 
tiplying that  number  by  four  hundred — the  United  States  to  pay  such  sums 
to  the  State  in  twenty  equal  annual  instalments,  in  six  per  cent  bonds  of 
the  United  States. 

The  sum  thus  given,  as  to  time  and  manner,  I  think  would  not  be  half 
as  onerous  as  would  be  an  equal  sum,  raised  now,  for  the  indefinite  pros- 
ecution of  this  war;  but  of  this  you  can  judge  as  well  as  I. 

I  enclose  a  census-table  for  your  convenience. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln, 


318  EMANCIPATION.— CONSCRIPTION.  [1862. 

But  the  Border  States  did  not  then  wish  to  give  up  slavery, 
and  although  Congress  passed  the  resolution  as  recommended 
by  the  President,  none  of  those  States  ever  offered  to  give  up 
their  slaves  and  become  free  States  in  the  way  he  suggested. 
So  firmly  did  President  Lincoln  believe  in  his  plan  that  he 
called  a  meeting  of  all  the  members  of  Congress  from  the  Border 
States,  and  tried  to  prove  to  them  that  it  would  be  to  their  in- 
terest to  accept  the  offer,  but  they  could  not  see  what  they  were 
to  gain  from  such  a  sacrifice. 

During  the  summer  of  18G2  Mr.  Lincoln's  opinion  concern- 
ing slavery  gradually  changed.  The  Confederates,  having  the 
slaves  to  work  their  plantations  and  to  do  other  hard  work,  had 
been  enabled  to  put  into  the  field  all  the  able-bodied  white  men 
in  the  seceded  States.  In  this  way  their  armies  had  been  greatly 
increased,  and  they  had  been  able  to  defeat  McClellan's  Penin- 
sula campaign,  to  overthrow  Pope,  and  even  to  invade  Mary- 
land and  threaten  Washington.  As  it  thus  became  evident 
that  slavery  was  a  source  of  strength  to  the  enemy,  Mr.  Lincoln 
at  last  made  up  his  mind  to  strike  a  blow  at  slavery  as  a  mili- 
tary necessity,  believing  that  such  an  act  would  greatly  weaken 
the  Confederacy.  He  therefore  prepared  a  proclamation  warn- 
ing the  revolted  States  that  unless  they  should  return  to  their 
allegiance  before  or  by  January  1,  1863,  he  would  declare  the 
slaves  in  those  States  to  be  free  men.  His  own  account  of  this 
is  interesting.  He  says:  "Things  had  gone  on  from  bad  to 
worse,  until  I  felt  that  we  had  reached  the  end  of  our  rope  on  the 
plan  of  operations  we  were  pursuing;  that  we  had  about  played 
our  last  card,  and  must  change  our  tactics,  or  lose  the  game. 
I  now  determined  on  the  emancipation  policy:  and  without 
consulting  with  or  the  knowledge  of  the  Cabinet,  I  prepared  the 
original  draft  of  the  proclamation,  and.  after  much  anxious 
thought,  called  a  Cabinet  meeting  on  the  subject." 

All  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  approved  of  it,  but  Mr. 
Seward  suggested  that  it  should  not  be  published  until  the 
army  had  met  with  some  success,  because  if  it  were  issued  then, 
just  after  the  greatest  disasters  of  the  war.  it  would  be  con- 
sidered "our  last  shriek  on  the  retreat."  Mr.  Lincoln  saw  the 
wisdom  of  this  advice,  and  put  aside  the  proclamation  to  wait 
for  a  victory.     When  General  Lee  crossed  the  Potomac,  and 


1862.]  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.  319 

General  McClellan  started  in  pursuit  of  him,  President  Lincoln 
believed  that  the  time  had  come.  "I  made  a  solemn  vow  be- 
fore God,"  he  says,  "  that  if  General  Lee  was  driven  back  from 
Maryland,  I  would  crown  the  result  by  the  declaration  of  free- 
dom to  the  slaves." 

General  Lee  left  Maryland  during  the  night  of  the  19th  of 
September,  1862,  and  two  days  afterward  (Sept.  22)  President 
Lincoln  issued  his  proclamation  declaring  that  all  persons  held  as 
slaves  in  any  State  which, on  the  first  day  of  January,  18G3,  should 
be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  should  be  then  and 
forever  after  free.  He  also  declared  that  any  State  not  then  in 
rebellion  should  be  free  from  the  operation  of  the  proclamation, 
and  announced  that  he  should  recommend  that  all  citizens  who 
had  remained  loyal  throughout  the  war  should  be  paid  for  any 
loss  in  slaves. 

But  this  proclamation  had  no  more  effect  than  the  Presi- 
dent's previous  plan  of  buying  the  slaves  in  the  Border  States. 
Indeed,  it  rather  made  the  seceded  States  stronger  in  their  hos- 
tility to  the  government,  for  the  principal  men  in  those  States 
pointed  to  it  as  proof  of  what  they  had  already  said — that  the 
war  was  begun  for  the  destruction  of  slavery  and  to  rob  them  of 
their  property  in  slaves,  and  not  simply  to  re-establish  the 
Union,  as  the  Northern  leaders  had  claimed.  There  was  much 
dissatisfaction  with  the  proclamation  in  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac and  among  the  people  of  the  Northern  States,  and  in  the 
autumn  elections  the  Democratic  party,  which  believed  that 
such  an  act  was  not  authorized  by  the  Constitution,  gained 
largely.  As  none  of  the  slave  States  paid  any  heed  to  the  proc- 
lamation, President  Lincoln  issued,  January  1,  1863,  his  second 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  in  which  he  declared  the  slaves  in 
the  rebellious  States  to  be  forever  free. 

The  effect  of  the  proclamation  was  at  first  rather  different 
from  what  had  been  expected.  The  Southern  people  were 
animated  to  make  renewed  and  more  desperate  efforts  to  win 
their  independence,  for  all  saw  that  there  was  no  longer  any 
hope  of  a  reconstruction  of  the  old  Union — that  is,  of  a  Union 
with  slavery  in  it.  In  a  message  to  the  Confederate  Congress 
sent  by  President  Davis,  January  12,  he  declared  that  it  had 
quenched  the  last  feeling  of  respect  for  the  Union  which  still 


320  EMANCIPATION.— CONSCRIPTION.  [1862. 

lingered  in  the  breasts  of  the  Southern  people,  and  that  it  would 
unite  them  more  resolutely  than  ever  to  sustain  the  Confed- 
eracy with  money,  arms,  and  prayers. 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation  met  with  much  opposition 
also  in  the  Northern  States,  where  there  was  a  large  party  who 
did  not  believe  in  carrying  on  the  war  by  what  they  considered 
unconstitutional  means.  They  complained,  too,  of  the  many 
arbitrary  acts  of  the  government,  such  as  the  arrest  of  citizens 
without  any  form  of  law,  the  suppression  of  newspapers,  and 
the  opening  of  letters  in  the  mails.  There  was  undoubtedly 
great  cause  for  complaint,  and  good  citizens  now  look  back 
with  surprise  at  those  dark  days  and  wonder  that  a  people  call- 
ing themselves  free  should  ever  have  been  willing  to  submit  to 
such  abuses  of  their  liberties;  but  in  judging  of  those  times  we 
must  recollect  that  the  country  was  on  the  verge  of  destruction, 
and  that  every  Northern  city  was  full  of  Confederate  spies  and 
of  people  acting  in  the  Confederate  interest.  There  is  no 
doubt,  however,  that  many  innocent  people  were  imprisoned  in 
United  States  forts  and  other  prisons,  and  kept  there  for  months 
without  even  being  told  for  what  they  were  arrested.  The 
country  was  filled  with  spies  and  informers  who  reported  every 
indiscreet  word  to  the  authorities  in  Washington.  Even  the 
army  was  subjected  to  the  same  treatment,  camp  sutlers  and 
newspaper  and  letter  carriers  being  employed  to  play  the  eaves- 
dropper around  officers'  tents,  and  pick  up  bits  of  conversation 
which  were  duly  retailed  at  the  headquarters  of  the  Secret  Ser- 
vice; and  many  a  valuable  officer  lost  his  promotion  on  a  charge 
of  disloyalty,  when  his  only  crime  was  the  making  of  some 
thoughtless  remark  or  jest  about  Secretary  Stanton  or  some  of 
his  favorites. 

The  employment  of  colored  soldiers  in  the  Union  armies 
began  in  earnest  after  the  issue  of  the  Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion, although  a  few  had  been  used  previous  to  that.  There 
was  at  first  a  good  deal  of  prejudice  against  them,  but  this 
gradually  died  out,  and  by  the  end  of  1863  more  than  fifty 
thousand  were  in  the  service,  and  before  the  end  of  the  next 
year  more  than  three  times  that  number. 

In  the  spring  of  1863  Congress  found  it  necessary  to  follow 
the  example  of  the  Confederate  Congress  and  to  pass  a  conscrip- 
tion bill.     Up  to  that  time  about  one  million  two  hundred 


1862.] 


DRAFTING. 


321 


thousand  men  had  volunteered  in  the  war  for  the  Union,  but 
scarcely  seven  hundred  thousand  were  then  left  in  the  service. 
So  many  men  had  been  lost  in  the  bloody  battles  of  18G2  and 
from  sickness  and  other  causes  that  a  large  number  were  needed 
to  fill  up  the  ranks,  but  enthusiasm  for  the  war  had  died  out 
and  few  volunteers  came  forward  to  take  the  places  of  the  fallen 
and  disabled.  Congress  therefore  passed  an  act  (March  3)  for 
the  enrollment  of  all  able-bodied  citizens,  irrespective  of  color, 
between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five  years;  and  in  May 
a  draft  of  three  hundred  thousand  men  was  ordered  to  be  made 
from  this  enrollment.  The  picture  shows  the  manner  in  which 
the  draft  was  made.  The  names  of  all  persons  enrolled  in  the 
place  from  which  soldiers  were  to  be  drafted  were  written  on 


Drafting  Soldiers. 


cards  and  put  into  a  large  round  tin  box  arranged  to  turn  like 
a  wheel.  The  cards  were  thoroughly  mixed  up  by  turning  the 
wheel  round  a  few  times,  when  a  person,  blindfolded,  put  his 
hand  in  through  the  door,  and  drew  out  one  of  the  cards. 
This  was  handed  to  an  officer,  who  read  the  name  aloud,  and  it 
was  then  recorded  in  a  book  by  the  clerk.  This  was  repeated 
until  enough  names  had  been  drawn  to  make  up  the  quota  or 
number  needed  from  that  place. 

The  passage  of  the  conscription  act  created  a  great  deal  of 
ill-feeling,  especially  among  the  lower  classes.  It  permitted 
those  drafted  to  buy  a  substitute  on  payment  of  three  hundred 
dollars,  and  this  was  claimed  to  be  unfair,  because,  while  the 
rich  man  if  drafted  could  easily  buy  himself  off,  the  poor  man 


EMANCIPA  TIOK—  CONSCRIPTION. 


[1862. 


who  was  unfortunate  enough  to  be  chosen  would  have  to  go 
into  the  army.  When  the  drafting  began  there  was  so  much 
excitement  in  regard  to  it  that  it  led  to  riots  in  different  parts  of 
the  country.  The  worst  of  these  was  in  New  York  city,  where 
the  place  of  drafting  was  attacked  by  a  great  crowd,  composed 
mostly  of  Irish,  who  broke  the  windows  with  paving-stones, 
drove  out  the  officers,  and  burned  the  building.  Raising  the 
cry  that  the  war  was  all  on  account  of  the  "naygurs,"  they 
chased  colored  people  through  the  streets  with  club">  and  stones, 
killing  or  maiming  many,  drove  colored  servants  out  of  hotels 
and  restaurants,  sacked  and  burned  a  colored  orphan  asylum, 
and  destroyed  all  the  property  of  colored  people  they  could 
find.  For  four  days  the  city  was  in  the  hands  of  the  mob. 
Eailroads  and  telegraphs  were  cut,  street  cars  and  omnibuses 
stopped,  factories,  work-shops,  and  stores  closed,  and  all  busi- 
ness put  an  end  to.  The  police  were  overpowered  and  most  of 
the  militia  regiments  had  gone  to  the  seat  of  war;  but  finally 
enough  soldiers  were  sent  to  the  city  to  put  down  the  rioters, 
of  whom  more  than  five  hundred  are  thought  to  have  been  killed. 
At  least  two  million  dollars' worth  of  property  was  destroyed  by 
the  mob  in  its  four  days'  rule. 

Riots  occurred  also  in  Jersey  City,  Troy,  Boston,  and  in  some 
other  places,  though  none  were  so  bad  as  the  one  in  New  York. 
But  so  much  dislike  was  shown  everywhere  to  the  draft  that 
only  about  fifty  thousand  of  the  three  hundred  thousand  men 
wanted  were  raised,  the  remainder  paying  their  three  hundred 
dollars  instead  of  going.  In  the  next  October,  however,  three 
hundred  thousand  more  men  were  drafted  and  were  got  with- 
out trouble. 


Sp^ingiteld  Rifle  Cartridge. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
VICKSBURG. 

Vicksbitrg.— Its  Great  Importance.— Grant's  Plans.— Capture  op  Holly  Springs.— Sher 
man  Defeated.— Fort  Hindman  Taken.— Arrival  op  Grant.— Canal  Digging.— Joseph 
E.  Johnston.— Running  the  Batteries.— Grierson's  Raid.— Grant  Lands  at  Bruins- 
burg.— Battle  of  Port  Gibson.— Grand  Gulf  Evacuated.— Sherman  Joins  Grant.— 
Taking  a  Rest.— Battle  of  Raymond.— Capture  of  Jackson.— A  Good  Union 
Man.— Jeff  Davis's  Book.— Battle  of  Champion  Hills.— Battle  of  Big  Black  River. 
—Bridge  Building.— Vicksburg  Surrounded.— Two  Repulses.— Calibre  54.— Cave  Life. 
—Mines  and  Countermines.— Scarcity  of  Food.— Grant  and  Pemberton.— The  Surren- 
der.—Effects  of  the  Bombardment.— The  Hotel  de  Vicksburg.— The  Vicksburg  Citi- 
zen.—What  was  Gained  at  Vicksburg.— Grant  and  the  Steamboat  Men. 

SOON  after  General  Grant  succeeded  General  Halleck  in 
command  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  he  began  to  turn 
his  attention  to  the  capture  of  Vicksburg.  Before  the  war 
Vicksburg  was  a  little  city  of  between  four  and  five  thousand 
population,  but  its  position  on  the  Mississippi  River  soon  made 
it  one  of  the  most  important  places  in  the  Confederacy.  Its 
situation  can  be  best  understood  from  the  map,  which  gives  a 
view  of  the  city  and  the  country  around  it,  as  far  on  the  east 
as  Jackson,  the  capital  of  the  State. 

The  Confederates  drew  a  large  part  of  their  supplies  of  cat- 
tle and  grain,  needed  for  food  for  their  armies,  from  Western 
Louisiana  and  Texas.  When  they  controlled  the  whole  of  the 
Mississippi  River  from  Columbus,  Kentucky,  to  New  Orleans, 
a  brisk  trade  was  carried  on  by  steamboats  on  the  Mississippi 
and  the  rivers  flowing  into  it  from  the  west;  but  after  the  fall 
of  Memphis  and  New  Orleans,  the  Union  gunboats  patrolled  all 
the  upper  and  lower  parts  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Confed- 
erates were  confined  to  the  part  between  Vicksburg  and  Port 
Hudson,  the  latter  about  twenty-five  miles  above  Baton  Rouge, 
Louisiana.  As  their  supplies  had  to  be  brought  across  the  river 
between  these  two  places,  it  became  of  the  greatest  importance 
that  they  should  be  held,  and  both  Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson 
had  been  strongly  fortified.  It  was  no  less  important  that  the 
Union  troops  should  capture  these  places  both  to  cut  off  its 
food  supplies  from  the  Confederacy  and  to  open  the  great  Mis- 
sissippi to  navigation.  We  have  seen  how  Farragut  steamed 
up  the  river  with   his   fleet,  bombarded  Vicksburg  for  many 


324 


VICKSBURG. 


[1862. 


days,  and  finally  passed  and  repassed  the  batteries.  At  that 
time  the  defences  were  unfinished  and  only  a  few  guns  were 
mounted,  but  the  Confederates  labored  earnestly  at  the  works, 
and  by  the  end  of  1862  had  made  a  second  "  Gibraltar"  of  it. 
Besides  its  river  batteries,  it  was  surrounded  by  a  long  line  of 
fortifications  on  the  land  side,  capable  of  holding  many  thou- 
sand men. 

The  Confederate  forces  for  the  defence  of  Vicksburg  were 
under  the  command  of  Lieutenant-General  John  C.  Pember- 


pOROONEf  GALLATIN  O 

Vicksburg  and  its  Vicinity. 


ton,  who  had  succeeded  Van  Dorn.  Grant's  plan  for  taking 
Vicksburg  was  to  have  Sherman  go  down  with  his  force  in  boats 
from  Memphis  and  make  an  attack  on  the  place  in  connection 
with  the  gunboat  fleet.  General  McClernand  was  ordered  at 
the  same  time  to  go  down  from  Cairo  and  aid  Sherman,  while 
Grant  himself  was  to  move  against  Pemberton,  who  was  then  in 
the  rear  of  Vicksburg.  As  both  Grant  and  Sherman  had  more 
men  than  Pemberton,  it  was  hoped  that  Sherman  would  be  able 
to  capture  Vicksburg,  while  Grant  held  Pemberton  in  check. 
But  just  as  Sherman  had  started  down  the  Mississippi,  Grant 
met  with  a  disaster  which  spoiled   his  plan.     He  had  made 


1862.] 


HOLLY  SPRINGS  DISASTER 


325 


Holly  Springs,  a  small  town  on  the  line  of  the  Mississippi  Cen- 
tral Railroad,  his  chief  depot  of  supplies,  and  had  gathered 
there  all  the  food  and  medicines  needed  for  his  army.  Grant 
knew  the  great  importance  of  keeping  clear  his  connection  with 
this  place,  and  he  took  care  to  repair  the  railroad  as  he  moved 
toward  Vicksburg;  but  Van  Dom,  with  a  force  of  Confederate 
cavalry,  made  a  long  raid  round  the  east  of  Grant's  army  and 
captured  Holly  Springs  (Dec.  20)  and  the  two  thousand  men 
who  were  guarding  it.  All  the  railroad  buildings  and  the 
immense  storehouses,  rilled  with  clothing  and  other  supplies, 
were  burned;  the  government  property  alone  was  valued  at- 
more  than  two  million  dollars.  This  great  loss  forced  Grant 
to  fall  back  to  Holly 
Springs,  and  to  get  more 
supplies  from  Memphis. 
He  then  determined  to 
give  up  the  movement  by 
land  against  Vicksburg 
and  to  send  his  army  in 
boats   down    the  Missis- 


John  C.  Pemberton. 


sippi. 

Grant's  retreat  ena- 
bled Pemberton  to  use 
most  of  his  force  against 
Sherman,  who,  not  know- 
ing of  the  disaster  at  Hol- 
ly Springs,  had  landed 
his  troops  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Yazoo  River,  which  flows  into  the  Mississippi  just  above 
Vicksburg.  Sherman  found  the  Confederate  lines  of  works 
behind  the  city  were  strong,  while  the  country  was  swampy  and 
so  cut  up  by  creeks  and  bayous  as  to  make  it  very  difficult  to 
approach.  He  made  an  attack  on  the  works,  but  found  it  im- 
possible to  take  them,  and  after  suffering  a  loss  of  nearly  two 
thousand  men,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  wait  for  Grant. 

In  the  beginning  of  January,  General  McClernand  came, 
and  being  the  senior  officer,  took  command.  The  name  of  the 
army  was  then  changed  from  Army  of  the  Tennessee  to  Army 
of  the  Mississippi.  At  General  Sherman's  request,  a  naval  and 
military  expedition  was  sent  up  the  Arkansas  River  against  Fort 


326 


VICESBURG. 


{\m. 


Hindman,  at  a  place  called  Arkansas  Post,  where  the  Confederates 
kept  several  steamboats  that  used  to  come  down  into  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  capture  supply  boats.  Sherman  commanded  the 
troops  and  Admiral  Porter  the  gunboats.  After  a  bombardment 
by  the  gunboats,  by  which  the  Confederate  sharpshooters  were 
driven  out  of  their  rifle-pits,  the  troops  pushed  their  way  through 
half-frozen  swamps,  and  bivouacked  for  the  night.  In  the  morn- 
ing they  advanced  under  a  heavy  fire,  in  which  nearly  a  thou- 
sand men  were  lost.  They  were  about  to  storm  the  fort  when  a 
white  flag  was  hoisted  and  the  place  surrendered  with  about  five 
thousand  prisoners.  Sherman  then  returned  to  Milliken's  Bend 
on  the  Mississippi,  where  Grant  soon  after  arrived  and  took 

command  of  the  whole  army 
in  person. 

A  glance  at  the  map  will 
show  that  Vicksburg  is  situ- 
ated at  the  end  of  a  long  bend 
in  the  Mississippi.  In  July, 
1862,  when  Admiral  Farra- 
gut  went  up  the  river  from 
New  Orleans,  an  attempt  had 
been  made  to  cut  a  canal 
across  the  Peninsula  made  by 
this  bend,  which  was  only  a 
mile  wide.  If  this  could  be 
done,  the  Mississippi  would 
make  a  new  and  shorter  chan- 
nel through  the  canal,  and 
vessels  could  go  up  and  down  the  river  without  passing  Vicks- 
burg, which  would  thus  be  left  inland.  Grant  concluded  to 
open  this  canal,  which  had  never  been  finished,  but  after  labor- 
ing at  it  for  several  weeks  the  river  rose  and  broke  through  the 
dam  at  its  mouth,  and  the  work  had  to  be  given  up.  Several 
attempts  were  then  made  to  open  passages  through  the  bayous, 
but  after  long  labor  in  pushing  the  vessels  through  dense 
swamps,  where  the  limbs  of  moss-covered  cypresses  broke  the 
chimneys  and  upper  works  of  the  steamboats,  and  amid  stag- 
nant waters  filled  with  wild-fowl  and  infested  by  alligators  and 
moccasin-snakes,  to  say  nothing  of  Confederate  sharpshooters 
along  the  banks,  the  attempt  had  to  be  given  up.     Grant  then 


John  A.  McClernand. 


1863.]  RUNNING   THE  BATTERIES.  327 

made  up  his  mind  to  march  his  army  down  the  west  bank  of 
the  Mississippi  below  Vicksburg,  to  run  by  the  batteries  with 
his  gunboats  and  transports,  then  to  cross  the  river  by  their  aid 
and  get  into  the  rear  of  Vicksburg. 

At  that  time  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who,  it  will  be 
remembered,  had  been  so  badly  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Seven 
Pines  that  he  was  obliged  to  retire  for  a  time  from  service,  was 
in  command  of  all  the  Confederate  forces  in  Mississippi.  He 
collected  all  the  troops  he  could  in  his  department  for  the  pur- 
pose of  relieving  Vicksburg,  or  at  least  of  saving  Pemberton 
and  his  army.  Grant's  object  was  to  prevent  a  junction  be- 
tween Johnston  and  Pemberton  and  to  keep  the  former  out  of 
Vicksburg  while  he  forced  tbe  latter  into  that  place,  so  as  to 
capture  him  and  his  army.  The  march  down  the  west  side  of 
the  Mississippi  was  made  with  great  difficulty,  for  much  of  the 
country  was  flooded  and  the  roads  were  almost  impassable. 
The  country  passed  through  was  lower  than  the  river,  which 
was  all  the  time  rising,  and  there  was  danger  that  the  waters 
might  break  through  the  levee  and  drown  the  troops.  There 
was  danger  too  that  the  enemy  might  cut  the  levees,  which  had 
to  be  guarded  night  and  day  for  more  than  twenty  miles.  But 
at  last  the  army  reached  a  plantation  called  Hard  Times. 

Means  had  now  to  be  found  to  get  the  army  across  the  river 
and  to  provide  it  with  supplies  enough  for  an  advance  against 
Vicksburg.  As  the  canal  had  proved  a  failure,  the  only  way 
left  for  the  fleet,  then  under  command  of  Admiral  Porter,  to 
get  below  Vicksburg  was  to  pass  the  batteries.  On  the  night 
of  April  16,  seven  iron-clad s,  one  wooden  gunboat,  and  three 
transports  laden  with  supplies,  made  this  perilous  voyage.  The 
plan  was  to  start  after  dark,  the  iron-clads  ahead  in  single  file 
and  so  far  apart  that  there  should  be  no  danger  of  running  into 
each  other.  If  discovered  by  the  batteries,  which  extended  eight 
miles  along  the  river's  bank,  the  gunboats  were  to  open  fire, 
and  the  transports  were  then  to  run  by  under  cover  of  the 
smoke.  Bales  of  cotton  and  of  hay  were  piled  up  around  the 
machinery  of  the  boats,  and  iron  chains  and  timbers  Avere  hung 
along  their  sides  to  protect  them  as  far  as  possible  from  shot. 
When  the  time  came  the  fires  were  hidden  and  all  lights  put 
out,  and  the  boats  began  to  move  silently  down  the  river.  A 
haze  had  settled  over  the  water  and  for  a  time  all  went  well, 


328 


YICKSBURO. 


[1863. 


but  presently  the  loud  booming  of  cannon  told  that  they  had 
been  discovered.  In  a  few  minutes  more  a  great  bonfire  was  kin- 
dled on  the  bluff,  lighting  tho  whole  river  with  its  blaze,  and 
all  the  heights  appeared  to  be  alive  with  the  flash  and  roar  of 
cannon.  The  gunboats  returned  the  fire  and  the  transports 
steamed  on  as  fast  as  they  could.  One  of  them,  the  Forest 
Queen,  was  so  badly  injured  that  she  had  to  be  towed,  and  an- 
other, the  Henry  Clay,  was  set  on  fire  by  the  shells.  She  was 
soon  in  a  blaze,  and,  abandoned  by  her  crew,  floated  down  with 
the  current — a  mass  of  roaring  flame — until  she  sunk.  The 
other  boats,  though  often  struck,  went  safely  by,  and  a  few 

days  afterward  six  more  trans- 
ports ran  the  batteries,  with 
the  loss  of  only  one. 

While  Grant  was  thus  get- 
ting ready  to  attack  Vicks- 
burg  from  below,  he  ordered 
Colonel  Benjamin  H.  Grier- 
son,  of  the  Sixth  Illinois  Cav- 
alry, to  make  a  raid  through 
Mississippi,  around  Yicks- 
burg,  and  to  destroy  all  the 
railroads  leading  from  that 
place  eastward.  This  was 
one  of  the  greatest  cavalry 
raids  of  the  war.  Grierson 
started  from  La  Grange,  Ten- 
nessee (April  17),  with  seventeen  hundred  horsemen  and  a  bat- 
tery of  artillery,  and  rode  six  hundred  miles  in  sixteen  days, 
reaching  Baton  Eouge  on  the  2d  of  May.  The  men  were  some- 
times in  the  saddle  for  nearly  forty-eight  hours  without  rest, 
and  during  the  last  thirty  hours  of  the  ride  went  eighty  miles 
almost  without  food.  When  they  reached  Baton  Eouge  they 
were  so  nearly  worn  out  that  three  fourths  of  them  were  asleep 
in  their  saddles.  Great  damage  was  done  to  the  enemy  during 
the  raid,  all  the  railroads  and  telegraphs  along  the  route  being 
torn  up  and  cut,  depots,  cars,  and  bridges  burned,  and  large 
quantities  of  supplies  destroyed. 

Grierson's  men  had  many  adventures  during  their  long  ride. 
They  were  divided  up  into  squads,  some  of  which  were  sent  iu 


\ 


Benjamin  H.  Grierson. 


1863.]  GBIERSOW'S  RAID.  329 

one  direction  and  some  in  another.  The  scouts  who  were  sent 
ahead  were  generally  dressed  in  Confederate  uniforms,  but  those 
of  the  main  body,  though  wearing  Union  uniforms,  often  passed 
themselves  off  as  Van  Dorn's  cavalry.  When  asked  where  they 
got  their  blue  coats,  they  replied  that  they  took  them  at  Holly 
Springs  from  the  Yankees.  This  always  occasioned  much 
laughter  among  the  secessionists.  At  one  place,  where  they  were 
supposed  to  be  Confederate  cavalry,  they  were  given  a  good  supper 
by  a  secession  lady,  who  scolded  her  negroes  well  because  they 
did  not  wait  upon  her  guests  fast  enough  to  suit  her.  Some  of 
the  scouts  stopped  one  evening  at  the  house  of  a  wealthy  plant- 
er to  feed  their  tired  horses.  On  their  telling  him  that  they 
were  after  the  Yankees,  the  gentleman  advised  them  to  push  on 
as  fast  as  possible,  as  he  had  heard  the  rascals  were  doing  much 
damage.  While  making  ready  to  leave,  they  found  two  fine 
carriage  horses  in  the  stable,  and  thought,  under  the  circum- 
stances, that  they  were  justified  in  making  an  exchange.  As 
they  were  taking  the  saddles  from  their  own  tired  animals  and 
putting  them  on  the  planter's  horses,  the  owner  came  out  and 
objected.  They  replied  that  if  he  was  anxious  to  have  the  ras- 
cally Yankees  caught,  he  ought  to  help  them  all  he  could. 

"All  right,  gentlemen,"  said  the  planter.  "I  will  keep 
your  animals  until  you  return.  I  suppose  you'll  be  back  in  two 
or  three  days,  at  the  furthest.  When  you  come,  you'll  find 
they  have  been  well  cared  for." 

Some  of  the  Confederate  accounts  represent  many  of  the 
men  as  behaving  very  badly,  stealing  watches,  jewelry,  and 
plate,  and  tearing  up  ladies'  dresses,  parasols,  and  other  things 
which  were  of  no  use  to  them.  A  squad  of  them  is  said  to  have 
stopped  at  a  plantation  house  and  asked  for  milk,  and  when  it 
was  freely  given  to  them,  to  have  dashed  the  glass  goblets  to 
pieces  on  the  ground  after  drinking.  Such  acts  of  vandalism 
were  too  common  during  the  war,  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  there  are  bad  men  in  all  armies,  and  that  the  trade  of  war 
is  very  apt  to  bring  out  the  brutish  part  of  men's  characters. 

Opposite  Hard  Times,  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi, 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Black  River,  lies  Grand  Gulf,  where 
the  Confederates  had  built  some  batteries.  Admiral  Porter  at- 
tacked these  batteries  (April  29),  but  after  a  battle  of  five  hours 
he  saw  that  the  place  was  too  strong  to  be  taken  from  the  river 


330  VICKSDURG.  [1863. 

side.  That  night,  however,  he  attacked  again,  and  under  cover 
of  the  fire  the  transports  and  gunboats  passed  safely  down  below 
Grand  Gulf. 

Meanwhile  the  army  had  marched  down  to  a  place  on  the 
west  bank  opposite  Kodney  (see  map).  On  the  last  day  of 
April  the  troops  were  taken  across  the  river  by  the  gunboats 
and  transports  and  landed  at  Bruinsburg,  above  Rodney.  Grant 
marched  at  once  toward  Port  Gibson.  When  within  a  few 
miles  of  that  place  he  was  met  by  a  Confederate  force  of  about 
six  thousand  men,  under  General  Bowen,  who  had  come  from 
Vicksburg.  After  a  sharp  battle  and  loss  of  about  eight 
hundred  on  each  side,  the  Confederates  were  defeated  and  pur- 
sued to  Port  Gibson.  During  the  next  night  they  burned  the 
bridges  across  Bayou  Pierre  and  fled  to  Vicksburg,  while  the 
garrison  at  Grand  Gulf  blew  up  their  magazine  and  followed 
them.     Grant  then  made  Grand  Gulf  the  depot  of  his  supplies. 

When  Grant  was  about  to  attack  Grand  Gulf,  he  sent  word 
to  Sherman,  who  had  been  left  above  Vicksburg,  to  make  a 
feint — that  is,  a  make-believe  attack — so  that  Pemberton  might 
be  puzzled  to  know  what  Grant's  plans  were,  and  might  be  pre- 
sented from  sending  all  his  troops  against  him.  Sherman  at- 
tacked at  Haines's  Bluff,  on  the  north  side  of  Vicksburg,  and 
Pemberton,  deceived  by  it,  drew  some  of  his  troops  from  the 
lower  side,  where  Grant  was,  and  sent  them  to  fight  Sherman. 
His  movement  having  succeeded,  Sherman  then  crossed  the 
Mississippi  and  marched  down  the  west  bank  to  join  Grant. 
General  Sherman  says  that  he  passed  on  this  march  many  fine 
cotton  plantations,  one  of  which  belonged  to  Mr.  Bowie,  brother- 
in-law  of  the  Hon.  Eeverdy  Johnson,  of  Baltimore.  The  house 
was  very  handsome,  with  a  fine  lawn  in  front,  and  he  stopped 
there  to  rest.  On  the  front  porch  he  found  a  Union  soldier 
sitting  in  a  satin-covered  arm-chair,  with  his  feet  resting  on 
the  keys  of  a  grand  piano.  On  asking  him  what  he  was  doing 
there,  the  man  replied,  "Taking  a  rest."  General  Sherman 
started  him  in  a  hurry  to  overtake  his  company.  In  the  library, 
which  contained  many  books,  were  fine  full-length  portraits  of 
Eeverdy  Johnson  and  his  wife.  After  getting  to  camp  he  sent 
a  wagon  back  to  save  the  portraits,  but  before  it  reached  the 
house  it  had  been  burned,  whether  by  soldiers  or  negroes  he 
could  not  find  out. 


1863.]  CAPTURE  OF  JACKSON.  331 

Grant  waited  at  Hankinson's  Ferry  for  Sherman  to  come  up, 
and  then  pressed  on  toward  Jackson  on  the  route  shown  in  the 
map.  Near  Raymond,  General  McPherson  defeated  a  Confed- 
erate force  under  General  Gregg  after  a  three  hours'  fight,  and 
then  pushed  on  to  Clinton,  on  the  railroad  leading  from  Vicks- 
burg  to  Jackson,  while  Sherman  marched  on  the  road  from 
Raymond.  The  Confederates  made  another  stand  near  Jackson, 
but  were  again  defeated,  and  retreated  on  the  railroad  toward 
Canton  (see  map).  Grant  had  heard  that  General  Joseph  E. 
Johnston  was  expected  at  Jackson,  so  he  determined  to  reach  it  as 
soon  as  possible.  The  night  (May  13)  was  very  stormy.  Much  rain 
fell  and  the  roads  were  deep  with  mud.  But  McPherson  and 
Sherman  pushed  on  early  in  the  morning,  and  about  ten  o'clock 
found  General  Johnston  near  Jackson,  ready  to  receive  them. 
The  battle,  begun  in  a  heavy  rain,  was  a  short  one.  The  Con- 
federates, defeated,  fled  toward  Canton,  and  Grant  entered 
Jackson,  the  capital  of  Mississippi,  with  Sherman's  column. 
The  Governor  and  most  of  the  officials  had  fled,  carrying  with 
them  the  State  papers  and  the  public  moneys.  While  the 
Union  troops  marched  through  the  streets,  the  citizens  peeped 
at  them  from  behind  closed  window-blinds,  while  the  negroes 
crowded  the  sidewalks  grinning  with  delight  at  the  show. 
Leaving  Sherman  behind  to  destroy  the  railroads,  machine- 
shops,  arsenal,  and  other  public  property  at  Jackson,  Grant 
moved  rapidly  back  along  the  railroad  toward  Vicksburg,  so  as 
to  prevent  a  junction  between  Johnston  and  Pemberton. 

Sherman  was  ordered  on  the  next  day  (May  16)  to  follow, 
as  a  battle  was  likely  to  be  soon  fought.  As  he  was  about  to 
leave  the  place  a  very  fat  man  came  to  him  and  asked  if  his 
hotel,  which  stood  near  the  railway  station,  was  to  be  burned. 
General  Sherman  told  him  that  no  buildings  would  be  burned 
excepting  those  which  could  be  turned  to  hostile  uses.  The  man 
said  that  he  was  a  good  Union  man.  "That  is  evident,"  re- 
plied Sherman,  "from  the  sign  of  yoiir  house,"  Avhich  was 
called  the  ''Confederate  Hotel,"  and  on  the  sign  of  which  the 
words  "  United  States"  had  been  faintly  painted  out  and  "  Con- 
federate" put  in  their  place.  The  General  had  no  idea  of  burn- 
ing the  house,  but  he  had  scarcely  left  when  it  burst  into 
flames.  He  afterward  found  out  that  some  Union  prisoners 
taken  at  Shiloh  had  been  brought  through  Jackson,  and  that 


332  VICKSBUBG.  [1863. 

their  guard  had  permitted  them  to  go  to  this  house  for  supper. 
But  as  they  had  nothing  but  greenbacks  to  pay  with,  the  man 
had  called  them  harsh  names  and  refused  to  let  them  have  any- 
thing to  eat.  These  men,  now  with  Grant's  army,  had  revenged 
themselves  by  burning  the  house. 

Near  Bolton,  General  Sherman  stopped  at  a  log  house  to  get 
some  water.  Seeing  a  book  on  the  ground,  he  asked  a  soldier 
to  hand  it  to  him.  It  was  a  volume  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  on  the  title-page  was  written  the  name  cf 
Jefferson  Davis.  A  negro  told  him  that  the  place  belonged  to 
President  Davis,  and  that  his  brother  Joe  Davis's  plantation 
was  not  far  off. 

Meantime  Grant  had  pushed  forward  rapidly  and  soon  came 
upon  Pemberton  and  his  army  posted  in  a  strong  position  on 
Champion  Hills  (see  map).  The  battle  began  about  eleven 
o'clock  (May  16),  and  after  a  fierce  struggle  the  Confederates 
were  driven  at  all  points  with  heavy  loss,  including  much  of 
their  artillery.  Among  their  killed  was  General  Lloyd  Tilgh- 
man,  who  had  been  taken  prisoner  at  Fort  Henry  in  1862. 
Grant's  loss  was  about  two  thousand  five  hundred.  Among  the 
Union  troops  who  took  a  principal  part  in  this  battle  was  the 
Twenty-fourth  Iowa,  commonly  called  the  Methodist  Regiment, 
because  many  of  its  principal  officers  and  men  belonged  to  that 
denomination.  The  evening  after  the  fight  they  held  a  relig- 
ious meeting  in  their  camp  and  made  the  woods  ring  with  the 
music  of  "Old  Hundred." 

The  next  day,  Sunday  (May  17),  the  pursuit  was  kept  up, 
and  the  Confederates  were  soon  found  again  posted  on  both 
sides  of  the  Big  Black  River,  near  the  railroad  bridge.  They 
had  built  a  line  of  earth-works  on  the  opposite  bank  and  armed 
it  with  heavy  guns.  The  greater  part  of  Pemberton's  force  was 
guarding  these  works,  but  a  considerable  body  had  been  left  on 
the  east  bank,  behind  a  bayou  defended  by  rifle-pits,  to  defend 
the  passage.  After  skirmishing  several  hours  a  charge  was  made 
on  these  works  and  the  whole  captured,  with  eighteen  guns  and 
fifteen  hundred  prisoners.  Many  of  the  Confederates  succeeded 
in  getting  across  the  river,  burning  the  bridge  over  which 
they  escaped.  They  then  burned  the  railroad  bridge  and  some 
steamboats,  which  obliged  the  Union  army  to  halt  to  provide 
means  of  crossing.     The  Confederates  did  not  stop  to  hold  the 


1863.] 


BRIDGE  BUILDING. 


333 


eastern  side,  but  fled  in  rout  to  the  defences  of  Vicksburg, 
causing  the  greatest  consternation  among  the  inhabitants. 
That  night  the  Union  troops  built  two  bridges,  one  on  bales  of 
cotton  and  one  of  timber,  and  early  next  morning  the  troops 
began  to  cross.  During  the  same  night  Sherman,  who  had 
marched  to  Bridgeport,  a  place  higher  up  the  river,  laid  a  pon- 
toon bridge  and  crossed  with  his  troops.  The  soldiers  marched 
over  by  the  light  of  pitch-pine  fires  which  were  blazing  on  the 
banks.  General  Grant,  who  had  ridden  up  to  see  Sherman,  sat 
with  him  on  a  log  and  watched  the  passage  as  the  bridge  swayed 
and  trembled  under  the  heavy  tramp  of  the  men.  The  flicker 
of  the  fires  on  the  water  and  the  lon£  line  of  blue  coats  and 


tf|j°  <■£ 


,  „..  .       .  J|t_. 


HP 
Grant's  Headquarters  at  Vicksburg. 

gleaming  bayonets  stretching  away  until  lost  in  the  gloom  of 
the  woods  made  a  fine  picture. 

At  daylight  Sherman  pressed  on,  and  turning  toward  the 
north  took  possession  of  the  forts  on  Haines's  Bluff,  which  the 
Confederates  had  left,  and  opened  communication  with  Admiral 
Porter,  who  was  in  the  Yazoo  River  with  part  of  his  fleet. 
McPherson  came  up  and  took  a  position  next  to  Sherman's 
troops,  while  McClernand  turned  to  the  left.  Thus  the  three 
corps  entirely  surrounded  Vicksburg  on  the  land  side,  and  Pem- 
berton  was  cut  off  from  Johnston.  Johnston  had  sent  word  to 
Pemberton  that  if  Haines's  Bluff  could  not  be  held,  Vicksburg 
could  not;  and  that  he  had  better  leave  Vicksburg  and  march 


334  VICESBURO.  [1863. 

north-east  to  join  him.  But  Grant's  quick  movements  had  pre- 
vented this,  and  now  from  Haines's  Bluff  cannon  could  reach 
all  parts  of  the  city.  The  gain  of  this  important  point  also 
enabled  the  Union  gunboats  to  go  up  the  Yazoo  River  to  Yazos 
City,  where  the  ram  Arkansas  had  been  built.  The  ship-yards 
and  machine-shops  there,  and  two  iron-clad  vessels,  nearly  fin- 
ished, were  destroyed. 

The  Confederates  in  Vicksburg  had  about  twenty-seven 
thousand  men,  while  Grant  had  about  thirty  thousand.  As  the 
Confederate  defences  were  nearly  eight  miles  long,  the  Union 
line  around  them  was  very  weak,  and  as  there  was  danger  that 
Johnston  might  attack. from  the  rear,  Grant  determined  to 
assault  the  works  at  once.  Two  assaults  were  therefore  made 
(May  19  and  22),  but  the  works  were  found  to  be  too  strong 
and  too  bravely  defended  to  be  taken  by  force.  During  the 
second  assault  General  McClernand  sent  word  to  Grant  that  he 
had  taken  two  of  the  enemy's  forts,  and  asked  for  reinforce- 
ments. Grant  said  he  did  not  believe  that  McClernand  had 
gained  any  advantage,  but  sent  him  the  aid.  He  also  ordered 
attacks  to  be  made  at  other  places  along  the  line,  to  keep  the 
enemy  from  using  all  his  troops  against  McClernand.  This 
caused  a  large  loss  of  men,  nearly  twenty-five  hundred  being 
killed  and  wounded.  It  was  found  out  afterward  that  McCler- 
nand had  not  gained  any  real  advantage,  but  he  issued  an  ad- 
dress to  his  troops  saying  that  he  had  failed  because  he  had  not 
been  properly  supported.  For  this  he  was  removed  from  com- 
mand, and  his  place  given  to  General  Ord. 

During  the  assault,  when  General  Sherman  was  at  the  front, 
a  boy  came  up  to  him,  limping  and  bleeding  from  a  wound  in 
the  leg,  and  shouted: 

"General  Sherman,  send  some  cartridges  to  Colonel  Malm- 
borg;  the  men  are  nearly  all  out." 

"What  is  the  matter,  my  boy?"  asked  Sherman  kindly. 

"  They  shot  me  in  the  leg,  sir,  but  I  can  go  to  the  hospital. 
Send  the  cartridges  right  away." 

"What  is  your  name,  and  who  are  you?" 

"Orion  P.  Howe;  I  am  drummer-boy  of  the  Fifty-fifth 
Illinois." 

The  shot  were  falling  all  round  where  they  stood,  for  they 
were  within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  Confederate  works,  and 


1863.] 


VALIBRE  FIFTY-FOUR. 


335 


Sherman,  fearing  the  boy  would  be  hit  again,  told  him  to  go  to 
the  rear  at  once,  saying  he  would  attend  to  the  cartridges. 
Orion  limped  away,  but  just  before  he  disappeared  over  the  hill 
he  paused,  and  shouted  back  as  loud  as  he  could: 

"Calibre  54!" 

By  this  he  meant  that  the  cartridges  should  be  of  that  size, 
as  the  calibre  or  bore  of  the  guns  for  which  they  were  wanted 
was  54.  The  General  was  much  pleased  that  the  brave  boy, 
though  suffering  from  a  bad  wound,  and  exposed  to  a  hot  mus- 
ketry fire,  which  was  apt  to  make  strong  men  lose  their  presence 
of  mind,  should  have  remembered  all  the  important  parts  of  his 
message.     He  recommended  him  to  the  care  of  the  government, 


Caves  near  Vicksburg. 

and  Orion  was  soon   after  appointed  a  cadet   in   the   Naval 
Academy. 

General  Grant  now  began  a  regular  siege.  He  had  received 
reinforcements,  and  had  about  seventy  thousand  men.  He 
planted  heavy  guns  on  every  hill  around,  from  which  shot  and 
shell  were  thrown  into  the  city  day  and  night.  Porter's  gun- 
boats and  mortar  boats  aided  from  the  river,  firing  immense 
shells,  which  burst  in  all  parts  of  the  works.  The  Confederate 
batteries  replied,  and  the  incessant  booming  of  the  heavy  guns 
and  the  howling  of  the  shells  made  day  and  night  hideous. 
No  part  of  the  city  was  safe,  the  shells  often  exploding  in  the 
streets  or  crashing  through  the  houses.  Many  of  the  streets  of 
Vicksburg  are  cut  through  hills,  on  the  tops  of  which  are  houses, 
high  above  the  street.     In  the  clay  banks  formed  by  cutting 


336  VICKSBURG.  [1863. 

these  streets  many  caves  were  dug  by  both  soldiers  and  citizens 
in  the  beginning  of  the  siege,  and  many  families  sought  shelter 
in  them  from  the  terrible  bombardment.  Sometimes  the 
bombs  found  their  way  even  into  these  underground  dwellings, 
yet,  though  the  siege  lasted  more  than  a  month,  very  few  per- 
sons lost  their  lives. 

During  all  this  time  Grant's  soldiers  had  been  at  work  dig- 
ging trenches  and  making  mines  under  the  Confederate  works. 
The  Confederates  dug  countermines — that  is,  pits  to  destroy 
the  mines — and  sometimes  the  two  parties  were  so  near  each 
other  in  their  underground  burrows  that  they  could  hear  each 
others'  picks  and  spades.  The  weather  was  very  hot,  and  the 
work  hard,  but  at  last  one  of  the  great  mines  had  been  dug 
deep  enough  and  far  enough  for  its  galleries  to  reach  under  one 
of  the  principal  forts.  Many  barrels  of  gunpowder  were  placed 
in  it,  and  in  the  afternoon  of  June  25  it  was  fired.  The  explo- 
sion was  terrific.  The  ground  trembled  as  if  shaken  by  an 
earthquake,  and  a  great  breach  was  made  in  the  fort.  As  the 
garrison  expected  it,  but  few  men  were  in  it  at  the  time.  The 
Union  troops  charged  into  the  opening  thus  made,  but  the  Con- 
federates gallantly  met  them,  and  after  a  bloody  hand-to-hand 
fight  they  were  driven  back.  Tbree  days  afterward  another 
mine  was  exploded,  and  another  struggle  took  place,  with  the 
same  result. 

At  last  the  want  of  proper  food  began  to  tell  on  the  garri- 
son. Provisions  began  to  give  out,  and  the  soldiers  were  re- 
duced to  half  rations  of  bacon  and  bean-bread.  More  than  six 
thousand  were  sick  in  the  hospitals,  and  the  women  and  chil- 
dren suffered  greatly.  Pemberton,  hearing  that  Grant  was  get- 
ting ready  for  a  grand  assault  on  the  4th  of  July,  felt  that  it 
was  useless  to  hold  out  any  longer,  and  on  the  morning  of  July 
3  he  asked  for  an  armistice — that  is,  for  a  cessation  of  hostili- 
ties— until  terms  of  surrender  could  be  made.  Grant  would 
give  no  terms  but  unconditional  surrender.  At  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  the  two  commanders  met  under  a  live-oak 
tree  near  the  Jackson  road,  to  talk  over  the  matter.  All  hos- 
tilities had  ceased,  and  thousands  of  soldiers,  Union  and  Con- 
federate, were  looking  upon  the  scene.  The  commanders  had 
both  been  educated  at  West  Point,  and  had  served  together  in 


1863. J  RALLY  ROUND  THE  FLAG.  337 

the  war  with  Mexico.  General  Pemberton  was  a  Pennsylvanian, 
but  he  had  married  a  Southern  wife,  and  in  the  beginning  of 
the  war  had  resigned  from  the  army  and  joined  the  Confeder- 
ates. When  they  met  they  shook  hands,  but  Pemberton  was 
ill  at  ease,  and  during  the  conversation,  which  lasted  more  than 
an  hour,  played  with  the  grass  and  pulled  leaves.  Grant 
smoked  all  the  time.  He  finally  agreed  to  let  all  the  Confed- 
erate soldiers  go  on  their  parole,  the  officers  being  allowed  to 
take  their  side-arms  and  one  horse  each.  The  terms  were  ac- 
cepted, and  just  before  noon  of  the  next  day,  July  4,  1863,  the 
stars  and  stripes  were  hoisted  over  the  Court-house  of  Vicks- 
burg,  while  the  soldiers  gathered  round  it  sang  "  Eally  Round 
the  Flag,  Boys."  *  The  news  had  been  sent  to  Admiral  Porter, 
and  by  three  o'clock  his  great  fleet  of  gunboats,  rams,  trans- 
ports, and  mortar-boats  were  at  the  levee.  After  dark  the  an- 
niversary of  independence  was  celebrated  with  fireworks  and 
music. 

The  surrender  of  the  men  who  had  so  long  and  so  bravely 
held  their  intrenchments  was  a  melancholy  sight.  They 
marched  out  of  their  works  by  regiments  upon  the  grassy  slope 
in  front  and  stacked  their  arms,  hanging  their  flags  upon  the 
middle  one,  and  then  took  off  their  knapsacks,  belts,  and  car- 
tridge-boxes, and  laid  them  beside  them.  The  men  were  dressed 
some  in  gray  and  some  in  butternut  clothes,  but  their  weapons 
were  all  good,  mostly  Enfield  rifles.  All  looked  sad  and  down- 
cast, and  no  words  were  spoken.  As  soon  as  the  accoutre- 
ments had  been  laid  off,  they  formed  again  in  regiments  and 
marched  into  the  city. 

As  there  was  but  little  food  left  in  the  city,  all  the  prisoners 
and  citizens  had  to  be  fed  from  the  army  rations.  Before  the 
surrender  flour  was  sold  at  ten  dollars  a  pound,  sugar  one  dol- 
lar and  seventy-five  cents  a  pound,  bacon  five  dollars  a  pound, 
corn  ten  dollars  a  bushel,  and  rum  one  hundred  dollars  a  gal- 
lon. Medicines  were  very  scarce,  and  the  sick  suffered  greatly. 
During  the  siege,  when  the  shells  fell  into  the  city  almost  all 
the  time,  day  and  night,  there  were  many  wonderful  escapes 
from  death.     Some  were  buried  under  a  shower  of  dirt  thrown 


*  See  Appendix,  page  569. 


YICKSBURG.  [18G3. 

up  by  a  bursting  shell,  others  had  their  clothing  torn  off  and 
their  faces  blackened  with  gunpowder,  but  were  unhurt.  The 
people  learned  in  time  how  to  dodge  the  shells,  and  even  ladies 
ventured  to  walk  the  streets  during  the  thickest  of  the  bom- 
bardment. But  generally,  when  a  shell  was  seen  coming  the 
soldiers  would  cry,  "  Eats,  to  your  holes!"  and  everybody  around 
would  scamper  into  the  caves  and  bomb-proofs  to  await  the 
explosion.  Most  of  the  shells  fell  into  the  earth  and  blew  out 
craters  like  the  cone  of  a  volcano,  but  not  so  much  damage  was 
done  to  the  houses  as  was  expected.  Many  of  them  were  shot 
through  by  cannon-balls,  some  bad  a  corner  blown  out,  and 
some  had  their  walls  cracked  and  bulged;  and  it  is  said  that 
there  was  not  a  pane  of  glass  left  within  five  miles  of  the  Court- 
house. Some  of  the  inhabitants  had  amused  themselves  by 
collecting  all  the  fragments  of  shells  that  had  fallen  in  their 
grounds,  and  in  some  places  as  much  as  a  ton  of  iron  had  been 
thus  piled  up. 

During  the  last  days  of  the  siege  some  of  the  mules  were 
killed  and  served  as  rations.  It  is  said  that  the  soup  made 
from  the  meat  was  very  good,  and  some  of  the  ladies  ate  it 
without  knowing  what  it  was.  Although  reduced  to  such  fare, 
the  Confederates  did  not  lose  their  spirits,  bat  cracked  many 
jokes  at  the  expense  of  their  new  food.  The  following  bur- 
lesque bill  of  fare  was  found  by  the  Union  soldiers  in  one  of 
their  camps: 

Hotel  de  Vicksbukg. 
Bill  of  Bare  for  July,  1863. 

Soup. 
Mule  Tail. 

Boiled. 

Mule  Bacon  with  poke  greens. 
Mule  ham  canvassed. 

Roast. 

Mule  sirloin. 
Mule  rump  stuffed  with  rice. 

Vegetables. 
Pens  and  rice. 


18631  HOTEL  BE   VICESBURG.  339 

Entrees.  * 

Mule  head  stuffed  a  Ja  mode. 

Mule  beef  jerked  a  la  Mexicana. 

Mule  ears  fricasseed  a  la  gotch. 

Mule  side  stewed,  new  stj'le,  hair  on. 

Mule  spare  ribs  plain. 

Mule  liver  hashed. 

Side  Dishes. 

Mule  salad. 

Mule  hoof  soused. 

Mule  brains,  a  la  omelette. 

Mule  kidney  stuffed  with  peas. 

Mule  tripe  fried  in  pea-meal  butter. 

Mule  tongue  cold  a  la  Bray. 

Jellies. 
Mule  foot. 

Pastry. 

Pea-meal  pudding,  blackberry  sauce. 

Cottonwood  berry  pies. 

China  berry  tart. 

Dessert. 
White  oak  acorns. 

Beech  nuts. 

Blackberry  leaf  tea. 

Genuine  Confederate  coffee. 

Liquors. 

Mississippi  water,  vintage  of  1493,  superior,  $3. 

Limestone  water,  late  importation,  very  fine,  $2.75 

Spring  water,  Vicksburg  brand,  $1.50. 

Meals  at  all  hours.  Gentlemen  to  wait  upon  themselves.  Any  inat 
teution  on  the  part  of  servants  will  be  promptly  reported  at  the  office. 

JEFF  DAVIS  &  CO.,  Proprietors. 

Card. — The  proprietors  of  the  justly  celebrated  Hotel  de  Vicksburg, 
having  enlarged  and  refitted  the  same,  are  now  prepared  to  accommodate 
all  who  may  favor  them  with  a  call.  Parties  arriving  by  the  river  or 
Grant's  inland  route,  will  find  Grape,  Canister  &  Co.  's  carriages  at  the  land- 
ing or  any  depot  on  the  line  of  intrenchments.  Buck,  Ball  &  Co.  take 
charge  of  all  baggage.  No  effort  will  be  spared  to  make  the  visit  of  all 
as  interesting  as  possible. 

In  a  copy  of  the  Vicksburg  Citizen,  printed  in  the  city  only 
two  days  (July  2)  before  the  surrender,  the  editor  speaks  of 


340  VICKSBUEG.  [1868. 

at  that  late  day  there  was  no  talk  of  surrender,  and  the  editor 
wrote  as  boastfully  as  if  Grant  and  the  Union  army  were  of  no 
consequence  whatever.     He  said: 

"The  great  Ulysses — the  Yankee  generalissimo  surnamed 
Grant — has  expressed  his  intention  of  dining  in  Vicksburg  on 
Saturday  next,  and  celebrating  the  Fourth  of  July  by  a  grand 
dinner,  and  so  forth.  When  asked  if  he  would  invite  General  Joe 
Johnston  to  join  him,  he  said,  '  No!  for  fear  there  will  be  a  row 
at  the  table.'  Ulysses  must  get  into  the  city  before  he  dines  in 
it.     The  way  to  cook  a  rabbit  is,  '  first  catch  the  rabbit,'  &c." 

When  the  Union  soldiers  entered  Vicksburg  they  found  the 
type  from  which  this  had  been  printed  still  standing  in  the  office 
of  the  Citizen.  Some  printers  among  them  set  up  the  follow- 
ing, put  it  in  the  column  after  the  above,  and  printed  a  few 
more  copies  of  the  paper: 

"  Two  days  bring  about  great  changes.  The  banner  of  the 
Union  floats  over  Vicksburg.  General  Grant  has  'caught  the 
rabbit,'  he  has  dined  in  Vicksburg,  and  he  did  bring  his  dinner 
with  him.     The  Citizen  lives  to  see  it." 

The  fruits  of  Grant's  great  victory  were  twenty-seven  thou- 
sand prisoners,  including  fifteen  generals,  more  than  a  hundred 
cannons,  sixty  thousand  small-arms,  and  many  engines  and 
railway  cars  and  other  material.  Some  of  the  cannons  were 
very  fine  ones  of  English  make,  of  the  Whitworth,  Armstrong, 
and  Brooks  patterns.  The  entire  loss  of  the  Confederates  from 
the  time  that  Grant  landed  at  Bruinsburg  to  the  fall  of  the  city 
was  more  than  fifty  thousand,  while  the  Union  loss  was  fewer 
than  nine  thousand.  But  the  value  of  the  capture  of  Vicks- 
burg is  not  to  be  figured  by  the  mere  numbers  of  prisoners  and 
guns  taken.  What  is  of  far  greater  importance,  it  opened  the 
Mississippi  Kiver  once  more  to  navigation  from  the  free  States 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  cut  the  Confederacy  into  two  parts. 
The  Confederate  leaders  felt  that  it  was  a  terrible  blow  to  their 
hopes,  especially  as  it  happened  at  the  same  time  with  the  great 
defeat  at  Gettysburg,  which  will  be  told  about  hereafter.  They 
tried  to  lay  the  blame  on  General  Johnston,  but  that  officer 
shows  in  his  report  that  none  of  his  orders  were  obeyed,  and 
that  he  had  no  means  of  aiding  the  garrison.  General  Grant 
won  great  fame  by  his  conduct  of  the  siege,  and  was  made  a 
major-general  in   the   regular  army.     Generals  Sherman  and 


1863.]  GRANT  AND  THE  STEAMBOAT  MEN.  341 

McPherson  also  were  made  brigadier-generals  in   the  regular 
army. 

After  the  fall  of  Vicksburg  many  officers  and  men  were 
given  furloughs — that  is,  leave  of  absence — to  go  home  and 
visit  their  families.  The  steamboat  men,  who  had  come  clown 
the  river  as  soon  as  it  was  opened,  took  advantage  of  them  and 
charged  them  high  prices  for  passage  up  to  Cairo,  sometimes  as 
much  as  thirty  dollars.  General  Grant,  hearing  of  this,  was  very 
indignant  that  the  soldiers  should  be  treated  so,  and  sent  a  guard 
down  to  stop  one  of  the  boats  just  about  leaving,  with  more 
than  a  thousand  men  and  officers  on  board.  He  then  ordered 
the  captain  to  payback  to  each  private  soldier  all  he  had  charged 
above  five  dollars,  and  to  each  officer  all  he  had  charged  above 
seven  dollars,  threatening  to  imprison  him  and  take  his  boat  if 
he  did  not  obey.  The  captain  did  not  like  it,  but  the  guard 
was  there  and  he  had  to  pay  back  the  money,  amid  the  cheers 
of  the  soldiers  for  General  Grant.  "I  will  teach  them,"  said 
Grant,  "that  the  men  who  have  perilled  their  lives  to  open  the 
Mississippi  Eiver  for  their  benefit  cannot  be  imposed  upon  with 
impunity." 


Field  Gun. 


CHAPTEE  XXIX. 
PORT  HUDSON.— CHANCELLORSVILLE. 

Sherman  pursues  Johnston.— Jackson  Burned.— Siege  of  Port  Hudson.— Whistling  Dick. 
—A  Bloody  Repulse.— Mules  and  Rats.— The  Surrender.— The  Mississippi  Opened.— 
Brashear  City.— On  de  Lord's  Side,  Massa.— The  Army  of  the  Potomac— CoRrs 
Badges.— Mosby.— Capture  of  General  Stoughton.— I  Can't  Make  Horses.— Hooker's 
Advance. — Chancellorsville.— The  Wilderness.— Frightened  Deer  and  Rabbits.— 
Rout  of  the  Eleventh  Corps.— Death  of  Stonewall  Jackson.— Remember  Jackson.— 
Hooker  Stunned.— Lee  between  Two  Fires.— Sedgwick  Driven  Back.— Hooker's  Re- 
treat.—Stoneman's  Raid. — A  Gallant  Deed. 

THE  flag  had  scarcely  been  hoisted  over  Vicksburg  when 
Grant  sent  Sherman  in  pursuit  of  Johnston.  The  latter, 
who  had  only  twenty-two  thousand  poorly-armed  men,  had 
marched  toward  the  Big  Black  River,  intending  to  attack  Grant 
in  the  rear,  but  on  hearing  of  the  fall  of  Vicksburg  he  fell  back 
to  Jackson.  Sherman  with  fifty  thousand  men  appeared  before 
that  place,  shelled  it  for  a  few  days,  and  was  making  prepara- 
tions to  attack  it  in  force  when  Johnston  withdrew  in  the  night 
(July  16)  and  retreated  eastward  to  Meridian,  Mississippi,  more 
than  a  hundred  miles  away.  The  conduct  of  the  Union  troops 
in  Jackson  was  shameful:  houses  were  plundered,  furniture 
destroyed,  books  torn  to  pieces,  paintings  cut  and  defaced,  and 
almost  everything  burned  which  could  not  be  carried  off.  The 
city,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  the  State,  was  completely 
ruined. 

While  Grant  was  besieging  Vicksburg  he  had  been  obliged 
to  withdraw  most  of  the  troops  from  many  places  around,  and 
the  Confederates  took  advantage  of  the  weakness  of  those  places 
to  attack  them.  The  post  at  Millikin's  Bend,  on  the  Mississippi 
River,  was  attacked  by  some  Louisiana  troops,  and  all  the  men 
there  would  have  been  captured  if  two  gunboats  had  not  come 
to  their  rescue.  Helena,  Arkansas,  also  was  attacked  by  the 
Confederate  General  Holmes,  but  he  was  defeated  with  heavy 
loss  by  the  Union  troops  under  General  Prentiss. 

The  fall  of  Vicksburg  was  followed  (July  9)  by  the  surren- 
der of  Port  Hudson,  which  had  been  besieged  by  General  Banks 
at  the  same  time  that  Grant  had  invested  Vicksburg.  Banks, 
it  will  be  remembered,  had  succeeded  General  Butler  in  com- 


1863.] 


SIEGE  OF  PORT  HUDSON. 


343 


mand  in  New  Orleans  at  the  close  of  1862.  In  the  following 
spring  he  sent  an  expedition  into  western  Louisiana,  defeating 
the  Confederates  at  several  places,  and  finally  driving  them  from 
all  that  part  of  the  State  south  of  Ked  River.  He  then  returned 
to  the  Mississippi  River,  crossed  to  Bayou  Sara,  and  laid  siege 
to  Port  Hudson.  At  the  same  time  General  C.  C.  Auger 
marched  up  from  Baton  Rouge  and  joined  Banks  in  the  siege. 
The  situation  of  Port  Hudson  may  be  easily  understood  from 
the  map,  in  which  the  village,  the  Confederate  fortifications, 
and  the  positions  of  the  Union  troops  are  clearly  shown.  The 
town  stands  on  a  high  bluff  at  a  bend  in  the  river.     It  was 


Siege  op  Port  Hudson. 


defended  along  the  water  by  batteries  extending  nearly  three 
miles  and  mounted  with  heavy  guns,  and  on  the  land  side  by  a 
long  circle  of  strong  earthworks,  rifle-pits,  and  abatis.  While 
the  Union  troops  surrounded  these  defences  on  the  land  side, 
Admiral  Farragut  with  the  Hartford  and  other  ships  and  gun- 
boats held  the  river,  both  above  and  below  the  town,  and  threw 
shells  into  the  Confederate  works  day  and  night. 

On  the  twenty- seventh  of  May,  Banks,  having  heard  that 


344  PORT  HUDSON.— CHANCELLORSVILLE.  [1S63 

the  Confederates  were  leaving  Port  Hudson,  ordered  a  general 
assault.  The  heavy  guns  kept  up  a  steady  fire  both  from  the 
river  and  from  the  land  side  during  the  morning,  and  about  ten 
o'clock  the  troops  attacked  with  great  bravery;  but  the  Confed- 
erate works  were  defended  in  front  by  rifle-pits  and  abatis 
(shown  in  the  map),  and  after  a  severe  struggle  the  Union  men 
were  repulsed  with  a  loss  of  about  eighteen  hundred  killed  and 
wounded.  Two  regiments  of  negro  troops  took  part  in  the 
assault,  and  they  are  said  to  have  fought  gallantly.  The  Con- 
federate loss  was  only  about  three  hundred.  Banks  then  began 
a  regular  siege,  and  day  after  day  the  great  guns  and  mortars 
rained  shot  and  shell  into  the  works.  The  bombs  from  the 
mortars,  falling  and  bursting  at  all  times,  gave  the  garrison  no 
rest  night  or  day;  their  medical  stores  soon  gave  out,  and  food 
began  to  get  scarce,  but  the  brave  Confederate  commander, 
General  Frank  K.  Gardner,  did  not  despair,  and  still  hoped  for 
aid  from  Johnston.  One  of  Banks's  guns,  which  did  much 
damage  within  the  works,  was  named  by  the  Confederates 
"  W-histling  Dick,"  from  the  peculiar  noise  made  by  its  shell. 

The  country  around  Port  Hudson  is  very  uneven,  cut  by 
deep  ravines  through  which  the  soldiers  could  creep  up  unseen 
quite  near  to  the  enemy's  works.  The  men  lived  in  these 
ravines,  scooping  out  sleeping-places  in  the  banks  and  making 
breastworks  on  the  top.  Behind  and  around  was  a  thick  mag- 
nolia forest.  Some  of  the  works  of  the  besiegers  were  within 
two  to  three  hundred  yards  of  the  Confederate  line,  so  that  the 
men  could  look  into  the  muzzles  of  each  other's  guns,  but  as 
the  sharpshooters  were  all  the  time  on  the  lookout  it  was  not 
safe  to  show  one's  head.  Banks  had  only  about  twelve  thoit- 
sand  able  men,  and  as  there  was  danger  that  Johnston  might 
attack  him  in  the  rear,  he  determined  to  make  another  assault. 
A  despatch  sent  by  General  Gardner  to  General  Johnston,  saying 
that  he  was  nearly  starved  out,  fell  into  General  Banks's  hands. 
Hoping  to  save  the  further  shedding  of  blood,  he  wrote  a  note 
to  Gardner  informing  him  that  he  knew  of  his  condition  and 
demanding  an  unconditional  surrender  of  the  place  in  the  name 
of  humanity.  But  Gardner,  still  hoping  that  Johnston  would 
come  to  his  aid,  refused,  and  on  Sunday,  June  14,  a  second 
assault  was  made  on  the  works  just  at  daybreak.  But  the  Con- 
federates were  ready  for  them,  and  after  a  bloody  struggle,  in 


1863.]  PORT  HUDSON  SURRENDERS.  345 

which  seven  hundred  Union  men  were  killed  and  wounded,  the 
besiegers  were  repulsed. 

After  this  the  siege  went  on  in  the  usual  way.  Banks  had 
gained  a  little  ground,  and  his  batteries  were  brought  closer  to 
those  of  the  enemy.  Mines  had  also  been  dug,  and  one  under 
the  citadel  (see  map)  was  ready  to  be  exploded.  The  garrison  was 
almost  without  food,  and  had  begun  to  eat  mules  and  rats.  One 
day  the  Confederates  were  puzzled  at  the  sound  of  loud  cheering 
all  along  the  Union  lines;  but  soon  the  shouts,  "Vicksburg  has 
surrendered !"  reached  their  ears,  and  they  knew  that  their  time 
had  come.  Two  days  afterward  (July  9)  Port  Hudson  surrendered 
to  the  arms  of  the  Union.  More  than  six  thousand  prisoners 
and  fifty  cannon,  besides  many  small-arms  and  much  ammuni- 
tion, were  among  the  spoils  of  the  victory.  Thus  was  removed 
the  last  hindrance  to  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
the  next  week  the  steamboat  Imperial  went  from  St.  Louis  to 
New  Orleans,  the  first  boat  between  those  cities  in  two  years. 

On  entering  Port  Hudson  the  Union  troops  were  surprised 
to  see  how  much  havoc  had  been  done  by  the  cannon-shot  and 
shell.  The  ground  was  plowed  into  furrows,  and  in  some  places 
trees  twice  as  large  round  as  a  man's  body  had  been  cut  in  two. 
"Where  the  trees  were  standing,  their  bark  had  been  almost  en- 
tirely cut  off  by  rifle  balls.  The  church  had  been  shot  through 
and  through,  many  of  the  holes  being  larger  than  the  windows, 
and  the  floor  was  strewn  with  broken  beams,  laths,  and  plaster. 
All  round  the  earthworks  the  enemy  had  burrowed  holes  in  the 
ground  to  shelter  themselves  from  the  shells  or  the  burning 
sun.  Deep  down  in  the  bluffs  caves  had  been  dug  for  maga- 
zines, in  which  the  powder  was  stored,  the  great  thickness  of 
earth  above  rendering  it  safe  from  shells.  These  caves  were 
reached  by  long  flights  of  steps,  cut  out  of  the  earth.  Many  of 
the  guns  had  been  dismounted  by  the  Union  artillery,  and  still 
lay  where  they  had  been  overturned.  Among  the  others  a  few 
"Quaker  guns"  were  found. 

Meanwhile  the  Confederates  in  Louisiana  thought  they  had 
a  good  opportunity,  while  Banks  was  busy  at  Port  Hudson,  to 
make  up  for  some  of  their  losses.  General  Dick  Taylor,  son  of 
President  Zachary  Taylor,  gathered  a  small  force  and  took 
Alexandria  and  Opelousas,  and  then  moved  toward  New  Orleans, 
hoping  either  to  retake  that  city  or  to  force  Banks  to  give  up 


346  PORT  HUDSON.— CEANCELLORSVILLE.  [1863. 

the  siege  of  Port  Hudson  to  save  it.  Ta}Tlor  took  Brashear 
City,  where  he  captured  nearly  two  thousand  prisoners  and 
much  war  material,  but  did  not  feel  strong  enough  to  attempt 
the  capture  of  New  Orleans.  After  the  fall  of  Port  Hudson, 
Taylor  retreated  westward  again. 

While  the  Union  and  the  Confederate  forces  were  thus  in 
turn  overrunning  parts  of  Louisiana,  the  blacks,  though  gen- 
erally favorable  to  the  Union,  had  to  be  very  careful  about  tak- 
ing sides  with  either  party,  and  the  pains  which  they  took  to 
hide  their  feelings  were  sometimes  very  laughable.  One  day, 
when  some  Union  troops  were  on  the  march  in  Louisiana,  a 
gray  headed  negro  was  seen  perched  on  the  top  of  a  rail  fence 
watching  the  movement  with  great  interest.  A  soldier, 
thinking  to  have  some  fun,  called  out  to  him: 

"Well,  uncle,  are  you  for  the  Confederates  or  the  Yankees?" 

A  smile  lit  up  his  weather-beaten  face,  until  it  looked  like 
illuminated  India-rubber,  as  he  replied: 

"  Why,  you  see,  massa,  'taint  for  an  old  nigger  like  me  to 
know  anything  'bout  politics." 

The  soldier  said,  rather  sternly:  "Well,  sir,  let  me  know 
which  side  you  are  on,  any  way." 

The  old  man  kept  up  his  smile  for  a  moment,  and  then  put- 
ting on  a  grave  look  which,  under  the  circumstances,  was  quite 
laughable,  answered: 

"  I'm  on  de  Lord's  side,  massa,  and  he'll  work  out  his  salva- 
tion; bress  de  Lord." 

It  is  said  in  the  last  chapter  that  the  fall  of  Vicksburg  took 
place  at  the  same  time  with  the  great  defeat  of  General  Lee  at 
Gettysburg.  We  must  now  go  back  to  the  East  once  more 
and  study  the  movements  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  before 
that  battle.  It  will  be  remembered  that  we  left  it  and  General 
Lee's  army  in  winter  quarters  on  opposite  sides  of  the  Eappa- 
hannock,  near  Fredericksburg.  General  Hooker,  called  "  Fight- 
ing Joe  Hooker"  by  his  men,  who  had  more  confidence  in  him 
than  they  had  in  Burnside,  found  the  army  in  a  bad  condition, 
and  much  reduced  by  desertion.  It  is  said  that  when  spring 
came  more  than  fifty  thousand  men  were  absent  from  duty. 
General  Hooker  at  once  set  to  work  to  reorganize  his  army  and 
to  get  it  ready  for  the  field.  Instead  of  the  "grand  divisions" 
into  which  Burnside  had  divided  it,  he  made  it  into  seven  corps, 


1863.J  MOSBTS  RAW.  347 

to  each  of  which  he  gave  a  badge,  as  follows:  to  the  First  Corps, 
a  disk;  Second,  a  trefoil;  Third,  a  lozenge  or  diamond;  Fifth, 
a  Maltese  cross;  Sixth,  a  plain  cross;  Eleventh,  a  crescent; 
Twelfth,  a  star.  Each  corps  was  divided  into  three  divisions, 
which  were  marked  by  the  colors  red,  white,  and  blue.  Thus, 
the  First  Division  of  the  First  Corps  wore  a  red  disk;  the  Second 
Division,  First  Corps,  a  white  disk;  the  Third  Division,  First 
Corps,  a  blue  disk,  and  so  on  through  all  the  corps.  The  badges 
were  worn  on  the  top  of  the  cap,  which  tipped  forward  enough 
to  be  seen  in  front.  It  could  thus  be  told  at  a  glance  to  what 
corps  and  division  each  soldier  belonged.  Each  division  head- 
quarters also  was  marked  by  a  square  flag,  bearing  its  badge: 
thus,  the  First  Division,  First  Corps,  had  a  white  flag  with  a 
red  disk;  the  Second  Division,  First  Corps,  a  blue  flag  with  a 


Army  Corps  Badges. 

white  disk;  and  the  Third  Division,  First  Corps,  a  white  flag 
with  a  blue  disk.  The  seven  cor.ps,  numbering  in  all  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men,  were  Under  the  com- 
mand of  Generals  Reynolds,  Couch,  Sickles,  Meade,  Sedgwick, 
Howard,  and  Slocum.  Besides  these,  Hooker"  had  twelve 
thousand  cavalry,  under  General  Stoneman.  Against  this  great 
force  Lee  could  bring  only  about  sixty  thousand  men. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  year  the  cavalry  of  both  armies 
made  frequent  raids,  and  sometimes  had  fights  with  each 
other.  Among  the  most  notable  exploits  was  the  capture  of 
the  Union  General  Stoughton,  at  Fairfax  Court-House,  by  Cap- 
tain John  S.  Mosby,  who  afterward  became  famous  as  a  rough 
rider.  Mosby  was  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Virginia,and  was 
practising  law  when  the  war  broke  out.     He  was  then  only 


348 


PORT  HUDSON.— CliANCELLORSVlLLE. 


[1863. 


twenty-eight  years  old,  but  being  of  an  adventurous  disposition, 
he  became  leader  of  a  band  of  scouts,  or  guerrillas,  as  they  were 
often  called,  and  soon  showed  himself  to  be  a  bold  and  daring 
leader.  His  capture  of  Stoughton  was  a  very  brave  act,  for  the 
country  around  Fairfax  Court-House  was  guarded  by  several 
regiments  of  cavalry  and  infantry.  On  a  cold;  rainy  Sunday 
night  (March  8),  he  set  out  with  only  twenty-nine  men,  riding 
through  the  woods  to  avoid  the  soldiers,  who  guarded  all  the 
main  roads,  and  after  a  delay  of  two  hours  from  losing  his  way, 
entered  Fairfax  about  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.     Sending 

part  of  his  men  to  get 
some  horses  from  the 
stables,  he  went  with  six 
others  to  Stoughton's 
headquarters.  M  o  s  b  y 
knocked  loudly  at  the 
door  of  the  house. 

"Who's  there?"  called 
a  voice  from  a  window 
above. 

"  Despatches  for  Gen- 
eral Stoughton,"  replied 
Mosby. 

Not  suspecting  any- 
thing wrong,  the  door 
was  unlocked  from  with- 
in, and  the  guerrilla  and  his  companions  went  straight  to 
Stoughton's  sleeping-room. 

"What  is  that?"  growled   the  General,  as   Mosby  shook 
him  by  the  shoulder. 

"  Get  up.     I  want  you,"  replied  Mosby. 
"Do  you  know  who  I  am?"    cried  Stoughton,  sitting  up  in 
bed.     "I'll  have  you  arrested,  sir!" 

"Do  you  know  who  /am?"  asked  Mosby  in  turn. 

"Who  are  you?" 

"Did  you  ever  hear  of  Mosby?" 

"Have  you  caught  the  rascal?" 

"No,  but  he  has  caught  you." 

"What  does  this  mean,  sir!"  cried  the  General  furiously. 

"It  means,"  replied  Mosby,  "that  Stuart's  cavalry  is  in 


John  S.  Mosby. 


1863.] 


BOOKER  AT  CHANCBLLORSVILLE. 


349 


possession  of  the  town,  and  that  you  are  my  prisoner.     Get  up 
quietly  and  come  along,  or  yon  are  a  dead  man." 

Stoughton  was  obliged  to  obey,  and  was  soon  mounted  on  a 
horse  and  put  under  guard.  Meanwhile  Mosby's  men  had  cap- 
tured the  General's  staff  officers  and  others,  and  had  taken 
from  the  stables  sixty  fine  horses.  The  prisoners,  thirty-five  in 
number,  were  mounted  on  the  horses,  and  the  Confederates, 
some  guarding  them  and  some  leading  other  horses,  started  on 
their  return.  They  had  to  ride  fast,  for  they  had  scarcely  time 
to  get  out  of  the  Union  lines  before  daybreak,  but  they  escaped 
safe  with  all  their  prisoners  and  booty. 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  heard  of  this  bold  exploit,  he  said  dryly: 
"Well,  I  am  sorry  about  the  horses.     I  can  make  brigadier- 
generals  enough,  but  I  can't  make  horses." 


Hooker's  Headquarters  at  Falmouth. 

Toward  the  middle  of  April,  General  Hooker  made  up  his 
mind  to  move  from  his  position  at  Falmouth  against  Lee.  He 
sent  Stoneman  up  the  Eappahannock  with  orders  to  cross  and 
ride  around  behind  the  Confederates,  and  cut  the  telegraph 
wires  and  the  railroad  between  them  and  Richmond;  but  a 
storm  came  on,  and  the  river  was  raised  so  high  by  heavy  rains 
that  the  movement  was  greatly  delayed.  Hooker's  plan  was  to 
march  up  the  river  above  the  junction  of  the  Rappahannock 
and  the  Rapidan,  then  to  cross  both  streams  and  get  behind 
Lee's  position.  To  hide  this  movement  from  the  enemy,  he 
sent  Sedgwick  down  the  river  with  a  large  force,  with  orders 
to  cross  over  and  make  a  false  attack.  This  was  done  so 
successfully  that  the  main  army,  under  Hooker  himself,  had 


§50  POBT  BtlbSON.— CHANCELLORSVILLE.  [1863. 

crossed  at  several  fords  above  Falmouth  before  Lee  knew  of  it, 
and  taken  position  at  a  place  called  Chancellorsville,  about  ten 
miles  west  of  Fredericksburg.  Chancellorsville,  or  Chancellor's 
Villa,  was  only  a  brick  house,  with  its  outbuildings,  so  called 
because  it  belonged  to  a  Mr.  Chancellor.  As  soon  as  this  was 
done,  part  of  Sedgwick's  force  hastened  up  the  river  and  joined 
Hooker,  who  then  had  more  than  seventy  thousand  men.  On 
the  1st  of  May,  Hooker  was  in  a  fine  position,  and  he  expected 
that  Lee  would  retreat  toward  Eichmond,  for  while  he  was  in 
his  front  with  this  great  force,  Sedgwick  was  behind  him  with 
more  than  thirty  thousand  men,  and  Stoneman  was  moving 
around  with  all  his  cavalry.  But  General  Lee  seldom  did  what 
was  expected  of  him.  Instead  of  falling  back  to  get  between 
Hooker  and  the  Confederate  capital,  he  left  General  Early  with 
about  ten  thousand  men  to  take  care  of  Sedgwick,  and  hastened 
with  the  rest  of  his  army  to  meet  Hooker. 

Chancellorsville  is  surrounded  by  a  region  of  thick  woods 
called  "the  Wilderness,"  but  toward  Fredericksburg  the  coun- 
try soon  becomes  more  open  and  fit  for  military  movements. 
If  General  Hooker  had  advanced  at  once  into  this  open  country 
he  would  have  secured  a  much  better  position  from  which  to 
fight  Lee;  but,  against  the  advice  of  most  of  his  generals,  he 
preferred  to  stop  at  Chancellorsville.  Lee,  who  now  understood 
Hooker's  position,  divided  his  army  again,  and,  while  he  him- 
self held  the  front,  sent  Stonewall  Jackson  around  to  attack 
Hooker  on  the  right  flank.  Jackson's  men  were  seen  on  the 
march  (May  2),  but  as  the  road  they  were  on  led  southward  it 
was  supposed  that  they  were  retreating  toward  Eichmond. 
Jackson  went  around  about  fifteen  miles,  and  at  five  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  reached  a  place  on  the  right  of  the  Union  lines 
only  six  miles  from  where  he  had  started.  He  moved  to  the 
attack  under  cover  of  the  thick  woods.  The  forest  was  full  of 
game,  and  deer,  rabbits,  and  other  wild  animals,  frightened  out 
of  their  hiding-places,  ran  before  the  advancing  columns,  and 
leaping  the  Union  breastworks  ran  away  into  the  woods  behind. 
Jackson's  men  followed  them  with  wild  yells.  The  Union 
troops,  surprised,  broke  and  fled.  The  runaways  swept  others 
along  with  them,  and  soon  the  whole  Eleventh  Corps,  under 
command  of  General  0.  0.  Howard,  was  in  confusion.  Men, 
artillery,  wagons,  ambulances,  and  even  mules  and  beef-cattle, 


1863.]  DEATH  OF  STONEWALL  JACKSON.  351 

which  had  been  allowed  to  come  to  the  front  of  the  lines,  were 
mixed  up  in  the  rout,  and  fled  in  a  mass  down  the  road  and 
toward  the  river.  At  last  some  troops  were  got  into  line,  and 
the  Confederates,  who  had  fallen  into  confusion  as  they  charged 
through  the  woods,  were  checked.  Though  night  had  fallen, 
there  was  a  full  moon,  and  Jackson  rode  to  the  front  to  recon- 
noitre. The  moon,  partly  hidden  by  fleecy  clouds,  gave  but  a 
dim  light,  and  all  around  from  the  gloomy  depths  of  the  forest 
came  the  mournful  song  of  hundreds  of  whippoorwills.  Jack- 
son rode  forward  to  within  nearly  two  hundred  yards  of  the 
Union  lines,  and  paused  to  listen.  No  sound  was  heard  from 
them,  but  there  was  danger  that  the  batteries  might  open  fire 
at  any  moment,  and  one  of  his  staff  officers  said: 

"  General,  don't  you  think  this  is  the  wrong  place  for  you?" 

"  The  clanger  is  over,"  he  replied  quickly.  "  The  enemy  is 
routed.     Go  back  and  tell  A.  P.  Hill  to  press  right  on." 

The  officer  turned  and  rode  back,  but  he  had  scarcely  got 
out  of  sight  when  a  volley  of  musketry  was  fired  from  the  Con- 
federate lines  behind.  It  was  never  known  from  whom  the 
shots  came,  but  it  is  supposed  that  the  soldiers  took  Jackson 
and  his  escort  for  Union  cavalry.  Many  of  the  staff  and  escort 
were  killed,  and  fell  from  their  horses.  Jackson  and  the  rest 
wheeled  and  galloped  into  the  woods,  but  another  volley  was 
fired,  and  the  General  was  wounded  in  three  places,  two  balls 
passing  through  his  left  arm  and  a  third  through  his  right 
hand.  His  horse,  frightened,  ran  between  two  trees,  a  limb  of 
one  of  which  struck  him  violently  in  the  face,  and  threw  him 
back  on  the  horse.  One  of  his  officers  caught  the  animal,  and 
Jackson  was  lifted  carefully  from  the  saddle  as  he  was  about 
falling,  faint  with  loss  of  blood.  As  the  Confederates  were 
advancing  again,  the  Union  artillery  opened  a  terrible  fire  of 
shell  and  canister  down  the  road.  One  of  the  men  who  were 
carrying  Jackson  from  the  field  was  killed  by  this  fire,  and  the 
wounded  general  fell  heavily  to  the  ground.  After  the  fire  had 
slackened  he  was  removed  to  the  hospital  in  the  rear,  where  his 
left  arm  was  amputated;  but  he  had  lost  too  much  blood,  and 
after  lingering  about  a  week  he  died  (Sunday,  May  10). 

At  one  time  he  was  reported  to  be  doing  well,  and  General  Lee 
sent  him  this  playful  message:  "You  are  better  off  than  I  am; 
for  while  you  have  lost  only  your  left,  I  have  lost  my  right  arm." 


352  PORT  HUDSON.— CHANCELLORSVILLE.  [1863. 

General  Lee  meant  by  this  that  in  being  deprived  of  Jack- 
son's services  he  had  lost  what  was  eqnal  to  his  right  arm. 
This  feeling  was  shared  by  everybody  in  the  South,  and  when 
Death  claimed  the  great  captain  for  his  own  it  was  felt  that  the 
Confederacy  had  received  a  blow  which  far  out-balanced  the 
victory  which  he  had  won  for  it  at  Chancellorsville. 

After  Jackson  was  struck  down,  Hill  renewed  the  attack,  as 
his  chief  had  ordered,  but  was  himself  wounded  and  driven 
back  by  the  Union  troops,  who  had  succeeded  in  forming  a  line 
of  defence.  The  command  of  Jackson's  forces  then  fell  to  Gen- 
eral Stuart,  the  cavalry  leader.  At  daylight  the  next  morning 
(Sunday,  May  3)  he  led  his  men  to  the  attack  with  the  battle- 
cry  of  "  Charge,  and  remember  Jackson!"  Lee  attacked  at  the 
same  time  in  front,  moving  his  men  so  as  to  get  nearer  and 
nearer  to  Stuart.  About  half-past  nine  o'clock  their  two  forces 
were  joined,  and  they  pressed  on  toward  Chancellorsville.  The 
Union  army  was  at  this  time  without  a  head,  for  General 
Hooker  had  been  knocked  senseless  by  a  cannon-ball  which 
struck  a  pillar  of  the  Chancellor  house,  against  which  he  was 
leaning.  No  one  seemed  to  be  willing  to  take  the  responsi- 
bility of  command,  but  each  general  fought  as  well  as  he  could. 
By  eleven  o'clock  the  Union  lines  had  been  forced  back,  and 
the  Confederates  had  won  Chancellorsville.  A  new  line  of  de- 
fence had  been  chosen  and  fortified  the  night  before,  and  the 
Union  troops  now  fell  back  to  this,  which  was  a  strong  posi- 
tion. Lee  was  about  to  attack  again  when  news  was  brought 
him  that  Sedgwick,  who  it  will  be  remembered  was  below  Fred- 
ericksburg, had  taken  the  heights  there,  beaten  Early,  and  was 
advancing  against  Lee's  rear  with  thirty  thousand  men.  This 
danger  had  to  be  met  at  once.  Rightly  judging  that  Hooker 
would  keep  on  the  defensive,  he  withdrew  a  large  part  of  his 
troops  from  the  front  and  sent  them  back  against  Sedgwick,  at 
the  same  time  keeping  up  a  heavy  cannonade  on  the  Union 
lines  to  deceive  Hooker.  Sedgwick  was  met  about  four  o'clock, 
and  after  a  severe  fight  his  advance  was  checked.  He  had  lost 
by  this  time  nearly  five  thousand  men. 

Monday  morning  found  the  armies  still  opposite  each  other, 
Hooker  watching  Lee  from  his  strong  position  behind  Chancel- 
lorsville, and  Sedgwick  unable  to  move  forward  from  the  place 
he  had  reached.     About  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  Lee  attackeu 


1863.]  BRAVE  LIEUTENANT  PAINE. 

Sedgwick  with  the  purpose  of  cutting  him  off  from  the  river, 
but  though  he  gained  some  advantage,  Sedgwick  succeeded, 
during  the  night,  in  getting  his  army  across  the  Rappahannock 
at  Banks's  Ford.  Having  thus  rid  himself  of  Sedgwick  in  his 
rear,  Lee  moved  once  more  to  attack  Hooker,  but  a  heavy  rain- 
storm on  Tuesday  delayed  his  artillery.  On  Wednesday  morn- 
ing he  advanced  to  attack,  but  his  enemy  had  gone.  During 
the  night  of  Tuesday,  Hooker  had  silently  crossed  the  river,  the 
bridges  having  been  covered  with  straw  and  earth  to  deaden  the 
noise  of  the  artillery  and  the  wagons,  and  the  Confederates 
were  left  in  possession  of  the  field  of  Chancellorsville,  with  all 
the  Union  killed  and  wounded,  fourteen  pieces  of  artillery,  and 
nearly  twenty  thousand  stand  of  small-arms.  The  Union  loss, 
including  prisoners,  was  more  than  seventeen  thousand  men; 
that  of  the  Confederates  about  twelve  thousand. 

In  the  meantime  Stoneman  had  succeeded  in  making  his 
raid  in  the  rear  of  Lee's  army.  Though  delayed  at  first  by  stormy 
weather  and  the  rise  of  the  river,  he  finally  succeeded  in  cross- 
ing (April  27),  and  rode  to  within  a  few  miles  of  Richmond, 
destroying  much  property,  but  the  expedition  was  of  very  little 
military  use,  for  the  Confederates  repaired  the  railroads  at  once. 

A  very  pleasing  story  connected  with  Stoneman's  raid  is 
that  of  the  capture  and  release  of  Lieutenant  Paine  of  the  Union 
cavalry.  He  had  command  of  the  advance,  and  getting  a  con- 
siderable distance  from  the  main  body  Avas  captured  with  all 
his  men  by  a  superior  force  of  Confederate  cavalry.  The  pris- 
oners were  hurried  away  as  fast  as  possible  to  get  them  away 
from  Stoneman,  who  was  rapidly  advancing,  and  in  crossing  a 
deep  stream  Lieutenant  Henry,  the  commander  of  the  Confed- 
erate force,  was  swept  off  his  horse.  As  none  of  his  men  seemed 
willing  to  try  to  save  him,  Lieutenant  Paine  sprang  off  his 
horse,  and  seizing  the  drowning  man  by  the  collar  swam  ashore 
with  him,  thus  saving  his  life.  Lieutenant  Paine  was  taken  to 
Richmond  and  confined  with  the  rest  of  the  prisoners;  but  the 
story  of  his  gallant  deed  having  been  made  known  to  General 
Fitz  Hugh  Lee,  he  wrote  a  statement  of  it  to  General  Winder, 
the  Provost-Marshal  of  Richmond,  and  Lieutenant  Paine  was 
at  once  released  and  sent  to  Washington,  without  even  being 
asked  to  give  his  parole.  Shortly  afterward  Lieutenant  Henry 
was  captured  and  taken  to  Washington,  and  Lieutenant  Paine 
had  then  the  pleasure  of  showing  him  many  acts  of  kindness. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 
GETTYSBURG. 

CONFEDERATE   HOPES.— NAPOLEON    AND   MEXICO.—  ANOTHER    INVASION    OF    THE    NORTH.— TEF. 

Two  armies. — Stuart's  Review.— Ewell  Surprises  Milroy.— The  Potomac  Crossed.-^ 
Pennsylvania  in  a  Panic— Hooker  Follows  Lee.— Meade  in  Command. — The  Ey*es  of 
an  Army.— Gettysburg. — The  First  Day's  Fight.— Death  of  Reynolds.— Hancock 
to  the  Front.— The  Second  Day's  Fight.— Little  Round  Top.— Ewell  on  Culp's  Hill. 
— The  Third  Day's  Fight.— A  Grand  Bombardment.— Pickett  and  his  Virginians.— A 
Dreadful  Struggle.— Victory  for  the  Union.— A  Terrible  Retreat.— Wasted  Am- 
munition.—Old  John  Burns.— Jenny  Wade.— The  News  in  Richmond.— Meade  Follows 
Lee.— "Winter  Quarters. 

THE  Confederates  were  greatly  encouraged  by  their  success 
at  Chancellorsville,  notwithstanding  the  loss  of  Jackson. 
They  had  now  beaten  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  two  great 
battles,  and  Richmond  seemed  to.  be  safe  for  at  least  another 
year.  In  the  West  too  their  arms  were  successful:  Yicksburg 
and  Port  Hudson  still  held  out  against  Grant  and  Banks,  Bragg 
was  keeping  Rosecrans  in  check  at  Chattanooga,  and  Galveston 
had  been  retaken.  Good  news  too  came  from  Europe,  where 
the  friends  of  the  Confederacy  were  in  hope  of  soon  securing 
its  recognition  as  an  independent  government  by  England  and 
France.  The  French  army  which  had  invaded  Mexico  in  18G2 
was  then  marching  on  the  capital.  The  Emperor  Napoleon 
III.,  believing  that  the  power  of  the  United  States  would  be 
broken  by  the  civil  war,  had  thought  this  a  good  chance  to  se- 
cure many  advantages  for  France.  If  the  great  republic  could 
be  divided  and  a  strong  empire  established  on  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico, there  might  come  in  time  an  opportunity  for  France  to  re- 
cover Louisiana  and  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  which  had  been 
sold  by  Napoleon  I.  The  Confederate  leaders  welcomed  this 
invasion  of  a  sister  republic,  for  they  hoped  it  would  insure 
their  independence,  and  they  were  ready  to  offer  the  Emperor 
almost  anything  to  secure  his  friendship  and  aid.  Napoleon 
tried  in  vain  to  get  Great  Britain  to  join  him  in  an  offer  to  me- 
diate— that  is,  to  try  to  bring  about  a  settlement — between  the 
North  and  the  South.  The  government  of  Great  Britain  re- 
fused, rather  from  caution  than  from  any  love  for  the  United 
States,  to  act  with  him,  and  in  the  beginning  of  ]  SG3  (January 


1863.]  SECOND  INVASION  OF  THE  NORTH.  355 

9)  Napoleon  offered  alone  to  mediate  between  the  parties,  but  the 
United  States  government  declined  and  refused  to  permit  any 
foreign  interference  in  the  quarrel. 

While  the  Confederate  hopes  were  thus  raised,  the  people  of 
the  free  States  were  much  troubled  in  mind  and  very  anxious 
about  the  result  of  the  war,  the  end  of  which  seemed  to  be 
further  off  than  ever.  A  large  party  had  grown  up  in  the 
North  who  were  for  peace  at  any  price,  even  at  the  cost  of  los- 
ing the  Southern  States;  and  they  had  many  sympathizers  in 
the  army,  a  large  part  of  which  had  been  opposed  to  the  Eman- 
cipation Proclamation.  The  Confederate  leaders,  believing  that 
this  feeling  was  stronger  than  it  really  was,  and  hoping  to  get 
some  aid  from  those  who  thus  differed  from  the  Union  govern- 
ment about  the  way  the  war  should  be  carried  on,  determined 
to  cross  the  Potomac  and  to  invade  the  North  once  more.  If 
the  Union  army  could  be  defeated  in  a  great  battle  in  Maryland 
or  Pennsylvania,  so  strong  a  feeling  might  be  stirred  up  in  the 
North  for  peace  and  in  Europe  in  favor  of  the  victorious  Con- 
federacy that  independence  might  be  won. 

As  soon  as  this  movement  was  decided  upon,  active  prepara- 
tions were  made  for  the  campaign.  The  army  was  reorganized 
and  divided  into  three  corps.  General  Longstreet  was  recalled 
from  North  Carolina,  where  he  had  been  acting  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year,  and  given  command  of  the  first  corps,  while 
General  Ewell  was  given  the  second  and  A.  P.  Hill  the  third 
corps.  Lee's  entire  force  numbered  about  seventy  thousand 
men,  all  of  whom  had  been  hardened  to  military  life  and  whose 
experience  in  their  conflicts  with  the  Union  army  had  taught 
them  to  believe  that  they  could  not  be  conquered.  Hooker's 
force,  on  the  contrary,  had  been  so  much  reduced  by  the  end- 
ing of  the  time  of  service  of  many  of  the  volunteers,  that  it 
numbered  scarcely  more  than  that  of  the  Confederates;  and  it 
had  met  with  so  many  reverses  and  had  had  so"  many  changes 
of  commanders  that  the  men  had  lost  confidence  both  in  them- 
selves and  in  their  generals. 

Early  in  June,  Lee  sent  the  corps  of  Longstreet  and  Ewell  to 
Culpepper  Court-House,  leaving  that  of  Hill  behind  the  works  at 
Fredericksburg.  Hooker  was  deceived  by  this,  but  in  a  few  days 
he  found  out  that  the  enemy  was  moving.  Lee's  cavalry,  under 
Stuart,  had  a  grand  review  in  the  plain  east  of  Culpepper, 


356 


GETTYSBURG. 


[1863. 


which  was  attended  by  ladies  from  all  the  country  around.  Stu- 
art, on  his  iron-gray  horse,  nearly  covered  with  flowers  by  bis 
fair  admirers,  watched  the  squadrons  as  they  charged,  amid  the 
thunder  of  cannon  and  the  music  of  bugles.  At  night  there 
were  festivities  at  the  Court-house,  and  the  cavalry  officers 
entertained  the  ladies  with  a  dance.  Early  the  next  morning 
(June  9),  the  Union  cavalry,  then  under  General  Pleason- 
ton,  crossed  the  Rappahannock  to  see  what  Stuart  was  doing 
in  that  neighborhood.  A  cavalry  fight  took  place,  which  lasted 
nearly  all  day.  Both  sides  fought  with  great  gallantry,'  and 
several  prominent  officers  on  both  sides  were  killed.     Among 

the  badly  wounded  was  Gene- 
ral Lee's  son,  General  W.  H. 
F.  Lee.  Pleasonton,  satisfied 
that  the  main  part  of  the 
Confederate  army  was  near 
Culpepper,  fell  back  to  the 
river  and  recrossed  about  dusk. 
But  Hooker  was  still  uncer- 
tain whether  Lee  was  moving 
against  Washington  or  to  cross 
into  Maryland,  so  he  moved 
northward  from  Fredericks- 
burg to  keep  between  Lee 
and  Washington.  Hill  then 
hastened  to  join  Lee. 

In  the  meantime  Ewell 
marched  into  the  Shenandoah 
Valley  to  Winchester,  where  he  surprised  a  Union  force  under 
General  Milroy,  and  captured  four  thousand  prisoners,  twenty- 
nine  guns,  many  wagons,  and  a  large  quantity  of  stores.  Mil- 
roy and  the  rest  of  his  men  escaped  to  Harper's  Ferry,  and  thence 
across  the  Potomac.  Ewell  pushed  on  to  the  river  and  took 
possession  of  the  fords.  A  cavalry  force  of  fifteen  hundred  crossed 
over,  rode  up  the  Cumberland  Valley  as  far  as  Chambersburg, 
Pennsylvania,  and  carried  off  many  cattle  and  sheep  and  other 
supplies.  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  were  now  in  a  state  of 
great  alarm.  Horses,  cattle,  and  sheep  were  hurried  away  to 
places  of  safety,  and  valuables  hidden  to  save  them  from  the 
enemy.     Even  Philadelphia  was  in  a  panic,  and  money  from 


George  Gordon  Meade. 


1863.]  MEADE  IN  COMMAND.  357 

the  banks  and  merchandise  and  household  treasures  were  sent 
northward.  president  Lincoln  called  for  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  volunteers,  but  they  were  slow  in  coming  from 
the  States  most  threatened,  while  the  regiments  from  New  York 
City  were  nurried  so  promptly  to  the  field  by  Governor  Seymour 
that  the  Secretary  of  War  publicly  thanked  him. 

Ewell's  corps  crossed  the  Potomac  (June  21  and  22)  and 
marched  up  the  Cumberland  Valley  to  within  a  few  miles  of 
Harrisburg,  the  State  capital.  Lee  followed  with  the  other 
corps,  and  by  the  2Gth  of  June  the  whole  Confederate  army 
was  over  the  river.  Hooker,  who  had  then  about  one  hundred 
thousand  men,  also  crossed  the  Potomac  at  Edward's  Ferry  and 
marched  to  Frederick.  There  were  eleven  thousand  men  on 
Maryland  Heights,  opposite  Harper's  Ferry.  General  Hooker 
asked  to  have  these  men,  who,  he  said,  were  of  no  use  there, 
added  to  his  army;  but  Halleck,  as  before  in  the  case  of  McClel- 
lan,  refused  and  said  the  post  must  be  held.  Hooker  then 
asked  to  be  relieved  from  the  command  of  the*  army.  His  re- 
quest was  at  once  granted,  for  Halleck  did  not  like  him,  and 
General  George  Gordon  Meade,  commander  of  the  Fifth  Corps, 
was  appointed  in  his  place. 

General  Meade  was  then  forty-eight  years  old.  He  had  been 
educated  at  West  Point,  and  had  served  in  the  Florida  war  and 
in  the  war  with  Mexico.  In  18G1  he  was  made  a  brigadier-gen- 
eral, fought  through  the  Peninsula  campaign  under  McClellan, 
was  wounded  at  Antietam,  and  afterward  commanded  under 
Pope,  Burnside,  and  Hooker.  He  was  greatly  surprised  when 
he  was  appointed  to  succeed  Hooker,  for  he  had  spoken  so 
plainly  about  that  officer's  conduct  at  Chancellorsville  that  he 
expected  to  be  arrested.  When  the  order  came  he  was  asleep 
in  his  tent,  for  it  was  late  in  the  night.  Supposing  that  the 
messenger  had  the  order  for  his  arrest,  he  asked  him  if  he  had 
brought  it.  "  Strike  a  light  and  see,"  said  General  Hardie, 
handing  him  his  commission.  He  was  utterly  astonished  when 
he  found  that  not  only  the  command  of  the  army  had  been  given 
to  him,  but  also  that  he  had  been  entrusted  with  power  to  do  as 
he  thought  best  in  the  emergency. 

In  moving  northward  Lee  had  to  keep  open  his  communica- 
tions with  Virginia;  for,  although  he  could  draw  food  enough 
for  his  army  from  the  country  he  passed  through,  all  his  mili- 


358  GETTYSBURG.  [1863. 

tary  supplies  had  to  be  brought  from  across  the  Potomac.  He 
was  therefore  alarmed  when  he  heard  that  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  had  crossed  the  river  and  was  marching  toward  him. 
for  Meade  might  easily  pass  through  the  South  Mountains  and 
cut  off  his  communications.  But  Meade,  who  wished  to  cover 
Washington  and  Baltimore,  marched  northward  up  the  east 
side  of  the  mountains,  and  on  the  same  day  (June  29)  Lee,  who 
was  about  to  cross  the  Susquehanna  and  move  toward  Philadel- 
phia, turned  his  march  eastward  toward  Gettysburg.  Lee  did 
not  know  as  much  as  he  ought  to  have  known  about  the  move- 
ments of  the  Union  army.  It  is  the  business  of  the  cavalry  of  an 
army  to  spy  out  the  movements  of  the  enemy,  and  for  this  rea- 
son this  arm  of  the  service  has  been  called  the  "eyes  of  the 
army."  But  the  Confederate  commander  had  left  Stuart  and 
his  horsemen  behind  to  watch  the  Union  army  and  harass  it  as 
much  as  possible  while  crossing  the  river.  On  the  day  when 
Lee  turned  toward  Gettysburg,  Stuart  crossed  the  Potomac,  and 
riding  northward  between  the  Union  army  and  Washington, 
destroying  much  public  property  as  he  went,  swept  around 
Meade's  front  to  Carlisle  and  then  turned  toward  Gettysburg. 
But  his  men  were  nearly  worn  out  with  fatigue  and  want  of 
sleep,  and  he  did  not  reach,  the  battle-field  until  the  evening  of 
the  second  day. 

Meanwhile  the  Union  army  was  moving  toward  the  same 
point.  Neither  Meade  nor  Lee  expected  to  fight  just  at  that 
place,  but  each  knew  that  a  battle  must  soon  take  place,  and  each 
was  moving  to  get  a  good  position.  The  advance  of  Meade's 
army,  under  General  Reynolds,  was  near  Gettysburg,  but  the 
rear  was  twenty  or  thirty  miles  south  of  that  place.  Meade 
chose  a  place  on  Pipe  Creek  as  a  good  position  to  await  the  at- 
tack of  the  Confederate  army,  and  he  expected  Reynolds  to  fall 
back  and  join  him  at  that  place. 

To  get  a  good  understanding  of  the  situation,  let  us  look  a 
snoment  at  the  map,  in  which  the  observer  is  supposed  to  be 
standing  on  the  east  side  of  Gettysburg  and  looking  toward  the 
west.  The  town,  a  borough  of  about  three  thousand  inhab- 
itants, stands  in  a  kind  of  plain  among  several  ridges  of  hills 
running  nearly  north  and  south.  The  ridge  south  of  the  town, 
which  bends  round  somewhat  like  a  fish-hook,  is  commonly 
called  Cemetery  Ridge,  because  the  burial-place  of  the  town, 


1863.] 


AROTIND  GETTYSBURG. 


359 


Evergreen  Cemetery,  is  on  its  crest.  Several  small  hills  rise 
from  it,  among  them  Round  Top  and  Little  Round  Top  at  its 
south  end,  Cemetery  Hill  at  the  bend  of  the  fish-hook,  and 
Culp's  Hill  near  the  barb  or  point.  Half  a  mile  west  of  the 
town  is  another  ridge,  generally  called,  from  the  Lutheran  The- 
ological Seminary  on  it,  Seminary  Ridge,  but  sometimes  Oak 
Ridge.    Still  further  west,  about  a  mile  distant,  are  other  ridges 


iJv/>'""«p»"/,'    X 


Battle  of  Gettysburg. 

separated  from  Seminary  Ridge  by  a  little  stream  named  Wil- 
loughby's  Run.  Many  roads  leading  in  nearly  all  directions 
meet  at  Gettysburg,  so  that  it  is  much  like  the  hub  of  a  wheel 
with  many  spokes. 

In  the  morning  of  July  1st,  the  Union  cavalry,  under  Gen- 
eral Buford,  were  west  of  the  town  on  the  Chambersburg  road, 
watching  for  Lee,  when  it  was  attacked  by  the  advance  of  Hill's 
corps.     Buford,  knowing  that  Reynolds's  corps  of  infantry  was 


360 


GETTYSBURG. 


[1863. 


in  the  town,  held  the  enemy  back  as  well  as  he  could.  Eey- 
nolds  came  up  about  ten  o'clock  and  attacked  the  enemy,  send- 
ing back  orders  for  General  Howard  of  the  Eleventh  Corps  to 
come  up  as  soon  as  possible.  He  had  scarcely  made  these  ar- 
rangements when  he  was  mortally  wounded  by  a  shot  through 
the  neck.  Howard  arrived  about  noon  and  took  command,  and 
the  Confederates  were  driven  back  little  by  little,  losing  many 
prisoners.  But  they  were  soon  reinforced  by  more  of  Hill's 
troops  from  Chambersburg  and  by  some  of  Ewell's,  who  were 
seen  advancing  in  a  long  gray  column  on  the  Carlisle  road. 
The  Union  troops  were  now  outnumbered,  and  being  attacked 
fiercely  on    the  right    flank    by  Ewell,    fell  back    in   much 

disorder  through  the 
town.  The  Confederates 
pushed  them  hard  and 
captured  about  five  thou- 
sand prisoners  and  sixteen 
guns.  The  whole  Union 
loss  in  the  fight  w as  near- 
ly ten  thousand  men. 
Howard,  thus  pressed 
back,  took  a  strong  posi- 
tion on  Cemetery  Hill, 
while  the  enemy  took 
possession  of  the  town. 
The  Confederates  did  not 
follow  up  their  success, 
and  so  the  battle  ended 
for  the  day,  in  the  defeat  of  the  Union  army. 

General  Meade,  who  was  at  Taneytown,  about  thirteen  miles 
south  of  Gettysburg,  sent  General  Hancock  forward,  as  soon  as 
he  heard  of  the  death  of  Beynolds,  to  take  command  and  to  de- 
cide whether  it  would  be  better  to  fall  back  to  Pipe's  Creek  or  to 
fight  at  Gettysburg.  Hancock,  in  whom  the  troops  had  great 
confidence,  soon  restored  order  in  the  Union  lines  and  aided  in 
strengthening  the  position  on  Cemetery  Eidge.  He  saw  at 
once  that  this  was  the  proper  place  for  the  battle,  and  advised 
General  Meade  to  bring  forward  the  whole  army  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. Meade  arrived  soon  after  midnight,  and  before  morning 
all  of  the  Union  army  excepting  the  Sixth  Corps  of  General 


John  F.  Reynolds. 


1863.] 


THE  ARMIES  IN  POSITION. 


361 


Sedgwick,  which  had  about  thirty-five  miles  to  march,  was  in 
place  along  Cemetery  Kidge.  The  line  reached  from  Little 
Round  Top  around  Cemetery  Hill  and  then  curved  backward 
across  the  Baltimore  road  to  Rock  Creek,  where  were  deep  ravines 
near  Wolf  Hill.  The  positions  of  the  different  corps  may  be 
seen  on  the  map.  Cannons  were  placed  all  along  the  rocky 
crest  of  the  ridge,  and  the  soldiers  strengthened  the  line  by 
putting  up  hasty  breast- works  aud  stone  walls. 

The  rest  of  Lee's  army  came  up  during  the  night  and  the 
next  morning  and  was  posted  along  the  crestof  Seminary  Ridge, 
Avhere  the  troops  were  hidden  in  the  thick  oak  and  pine 
woods.  Longstreet  was 
on  the  right,  Hill  in  the 
centre,  and  Ewell  on  the 
left.  Though  the  opposing 
armies  were  then  very  near- 
ly ecjual  in  number,  the 
Confederate  line  was  much 
longer  than  the  Union 
line,  because  it  had  to 
stretch  around  Meade's 
army  in  an  outer  curve. 
It  took  longer,  therefore, 
to  get  the  men  together  at 
any  one  place  than  it  did 
in  the  Union  line,  which 
held  an  inner  curve.  The 
Confederates  posted  their  batteries  along  the  crest  of  Seminary 
Ridge,  aud  thus,  on  the  morning  of  July  2d,  the  two  armies  lay 
opposite  each  other  with  only  the  valley  between  them.  In 
the  valley  were  the  spires  and  roofs  of  Gettysburg  half  hidden 
among  the  trees,  and  further  toward  the  left  Avere  waving 
wheat-fields,  and  even  cattle  quietly  feeding  in  the  pastures. 

A  lively  firing  was  kept  up  all  the  morning  by  the  skirmish- 
ers of  the  two  armies;  the  men  lying  flat  on  the  ground,  in  the 
meadows  or  wheat-fields  in  front  of  the  lines,  and  shooting 
wherever  they  saw  anything  to  aim  at.  From  the  hills  their 
positions  could  be  seen  by  the  curling  puffs  of  smoke  that  rose 
from  their  rifles.  This  was  kept  up  until  about  four  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  when  part  of  Longstreet's  corps  fiercely  attacked 


GOUVERNEUR  KEMBLE  WARREN. 


362  GETTYSBURG.  [1863 

Sickles,  and  another  part  under  Hood,  on  the  extreme  right  of  the 
Confederate  line,  attempted  to  seize  Little  Round  Top.  A  glance 
at  the  map  will  show  that  Sickles  did  not  hold  a  place  along  the 
crest  of  the  ridge,  but  had  advanced  his  line  to  a  peach  orchard 
in  his  front.  This  was  a  mistake  which  Meade  did  not  see 
until  it  was  too  late  to  make  a  change.  Sickles  was  soon  carried 
from  the  field  with  his  leg  shattered,  and  his  troops  were  forced 
back  little  by  little  from  the  peach  orchard  until  a  new  line  was 
formed  on  the  crest  of  the  hill.  The  Confederates  tried  in  vain 
to  break  through  this,  and  at  last  Hancock  succeeded  in  driving 
them  back;  but  they  held  the  line  by  the  peach  orchard,  from 


The  Summit  of  Little  Round  Top. 

which  Sickles  had  been  forced.  Hood  meanwhile  had  strug- 
gled hard  to  get  possession  of  Little  Bound  Top,  which  had  not 
been  occupied  by  the  Union  troops,  though  it  was  really  the 
key  to  their  position;  for  if  the  Confederates  had  succeeded  in 
taking  it  and  in  planting  some  cannon  on  it  they  could  have 
shelled  Meade  out  of  his  position.  General  Warren  saw  the 
danger  and  hastily  ordered  some  regiments  up  the  hill.  They 
dragged  some  cannon  with  great  labor  up  the  rugged  sides,  and 
had  just  got  them  in  position  when  Hood's  Texans  came  swarm- 
ing up  among  the  rocks  and  underbrush  of  the  western  slope. 
A  fierce  hand-to-hand  fight  took  place.  Bayonets  were  crossed, 
muskets  were  used  as  clubs,  and  even  jagged  pieces  of  rock  were 
used  as  missiles.     The  battle  raged  for  half  an  hour  under  the 


1863.]  SECOND  DAY'S  FIGHT.  363 

rays  of  the  fierce  July  sun,  but  at  last  the  Texans  were  driven 
from  the  hill  and  the  important  place  was  secured.  That  night 
breastworks  were  built  around  it  and  a  strong  battery  placed  on 
its  summit. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  General  Ewell  made  an  attack  on 
Culp's  Hill,  where  the  Union  line  had  been  greatly  weakened 
by  the  withdrawal  of  troops  for  the  aid  of  Sickles.  The  assault 
was  gallantly  made,  for  these  were  Stonewall  Jackson's  men, 
and  after  a  fierce  struggle,  in  which  cannon  were  won  and  lost 
again,  the  Confederates  succeeded  in  gaining  a  foothold  in  the 
outer  intrenchments.  It  was  ten  o'clock  at  night  before  the 
fighting  ceased.  Nearly  forty  thousand  men  had  been  killed 
or  wounded  in  the  two  days'  battle,  and  the  great  question  of 
victory  was  yet  undecided.  But  the  Confederates  had  won 
some  partial  successes,  and  although  they  were  really  worth 
very  little,  they  were  sufficient  to  cause  General  Lee  to  hope 
that  he  might  be  enabled  to  carry  the  Union  works  by  storm  on 
the  next  day. 

During  the  night  Ewell  was  strengthened  in  the  position  he 
had  won,  and  Lee  expected  him  to  push  on  his  success  in  the 
morning.  But  Meade  was  too  quick  for  him:  at  early  dawn 
the  Confederates  were  attacked  by  a  heavy  force,  and  after  a 
struggle  of  several  hours,  in  which  both  sides  lost  heavily, 
Ewell's  troops  were  driven  from  Culp's  Hill,  and  all  that  he  had 
won  was  regained.  Lee  had  intended  to  make  an  attack  on 
the  centre  of  the  Union  position  at  the  same  time  that  Ewell 
pushed  his  success  on  the  right,  but  the  movement  was  much 
delayed,  and  so  it  happened  that  Ewell  was  driven  out  before 
Longstreet,  who  was  to  conduct  it,  was  ready.  At  one  o'clock 
the  Confederates  began  the  attack  by  a  terrific  bombardment  of 
the  Union  position  on  Cemetery  Bidge.  More  than  a  hundred 
and  fifty  guns  had  been  brought  together  along  Seminary  Kitlge, 
and  from  them  all  kinds  of  shot  and  shell  were  thrown  as  fast 
as  the  cannons  could  be  fired  upon  the  Union  position.  Al- 
though Meade  had  more  than  two  hundred  guns  in  readiness, 
the  ground  along  the  ridge  was  so  rough  that  only  about  eighty 
could  be  used  to  reply  to  this  fire.  Lee  hoped  to  silence  the 
Union  batteries  by  this  cannonade  and  to  drive  the  troops  from 
the  crest  of  the  hills  so  as  to  leave  an  opening  for  his  troops  to 
charge.     Along  the  Union  line  the  air  was  alive  with  shells^ 


364  GETTYSBURG.  [1863. 

which  shrieked,  moaned,  and  whistled  over  the  ground  where 
the  men  lay,  protecting  themselves  as  well  as  they  could  behind 
rocks  and  in  hollows.  The  farm-house  in  the  rear  of  the  lines, 
where  General  Meade  had  his  headquarters,  was  shot  through 
and  through  and  badly  torn  by  the  bursting  shells,  and  sixteen 
of  the  staff  officers'  horses,  which  were  fastened  to  the  fence  at 
the  door,  were  killed.  The  oldest  officers  said  they  had  never 
before  seen  so  hot  a  fire.  The  graves  on  Cemetery  Hill  were 
plowed  and  torn  and  some  of  the  stones  and  marble  monu- 
ments shattered.  For  more  than  two  hours  the  cannon- 
ade continued,  but  the  Union  troops  were  well  sheltered  and 
suffered  but  little.  The  fire  of  the  Union  batteries  at  last  slack- 
ened for  awhile,  the  chief  of  artillery  thinking  it  best  to  reserve 
his  ammunition  to  repel  the  expected  charge  of  the  enemy. 
General  Lee,  thinking  he  had  nearly  silenced  the  enemy's  fire, 
kept  up  his  firing  and  prepared  for  a  charge. 

About  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  a  long  line  of  Confed- 
erate infantry  was  seen  moving  out  from  the  thick  cloud  of 
smoke  that  overhung  Seminary  Ridge.  With  the  steady  tread 
of  veterans  the  gray  mass  descended  the  slope  and  marched  for- 
ward across  the  plain.  Even  the  Union  soldiers  could  not  keep 
back  a  feeling  of  admiration  as  these  men  marched  forward  so 
bravely  in  the  face  of  death.  Their  line  was  more  than  a  mile 
long,  and  behind  them  was  another  line  equally  strong.  Gen- 
eral Pickett  with  his  Virginians  led  the  attack.  On  the  right 
was  part  of  Hill's  corps,  led  by  General  Wilcox,  and  on  the  left 
another  part,  mostly  North  Carolinians,  under  General  Petti- 
grew.  The  whole  line  moved  as  regularly  as  if  on  parade.  As 
soon  as  it  came  into  the  open  plain  the  Union  batteries  opened 
fire,  making  great  gaps  in  the  ranks,  but  the  men  closed  up  and 
moved  on  without  faltering.  At  last  they  came  within  mnsket- 
shot,  but  the  Union  troops  withheld  their  fire  until  the  enemy 
were  within  two  or  three  hundred  yards.  The  North  Carolin- 
ians, many  of  whom  were  raw  troops,  had  been  told  that  the 
men  before  them  were  mostly  militia,  and  marched  boldly  to  the 
attack;  but  when,  all  along  Hancock's  line,  the  Union  men 
rose  up  to  fire,  they  recognized  the  bronzed  faces  of  veterans, 
and  the  cry  was  raised,  "It  is  the  Army  of  the  Potomac."  The 
next  moment  a  sheet  of  flame  and  smoke  leaped  out  from  the 
ranks  before  them,  and  their  line  was  broken  into  fragments, 


1863.] 


PICKETT  AND  HIS  VIRGINIANS. 


305 


They  fell  back  in  disorder,  leaving  two  thousand  prisoners  and 
fifteen  battle-flags  behind.  Wilcox's  men  on  the  Confederate 
right  had  also  fallen  back,  leaving  Pickett  and  his  five  thousand 
Virginians  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  fight.  Through  a  storm  of 
shot  and  shell  and  a  deadly  musketry  fire,  right  up  the  slope  of 
Cemetery  Eidge  rushed  these  gallant  men,  leaving  a  long  line 
of  dead  and  dying  behind  them.  A  minute  later  and  they  were 
over  the  stone  wall  and  among  the  Union  batteries.  Above  the 
smoke  were  seen  the  Confederate  battle-flags  and  a  wild  shout 
of  victory  went  up.  But  the  Union  men  rallied.  For  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  there  was  a  deadly  hand-to-hand  battle  among 
the  guns.  Both  lines  were  in  disorder,  officers  and  men  be- 
ing mingled  together, 
each  man  fighting  for 
himself.  One  after  an- 
other the  Confederate 
leaders  were  shot  down 
— Garnett,  Armistead, 
Kemper,  only  Pickett 
was  left  —  and  almost 
without  officers  and 
nearly  surrounded,  the 
Virginians  fell  back. 
Another  volley,  and  part 
threw  down  their  arms 
in  token  of  surrender 
and  the  rest  fled  tumul- 
tuously  from  the  hill. 
The  Union  men  leaped  forward  upon  the  struggling  mass,  but 
the  fighting  was  over,  and  all  that  was  to  be  done  was  to  gather 
in  the  prisoners  and  the  flags.  General  Hancock,  who  com- 
manded the  part  of  the  Union  line  which  had  so  gallantly  re- 
pulsed the  assault,  was  borne  from  the  field  severely  wounded, 
and  was  not  fit  for  service  again  until  the  next  spring. 

It  was  now  nearly  sunset  and  the  great  battle  of  Gettysburg 
was  over,  for  Lee  sawf*how  vain  it  was  to  try  to  carry  the  Union 
position.  He  was  greatly  cast  down  by  the  result,  for  he  knew 
that  it  meant  far  more  to  the  cause  for  which  he  fought  than  a 
lost  battle.  If  he  had  won,  he  believed  that  Baltimore  and 
Washington  would  have  fallen  and  he  could  have  made  peace  on 


George  Pickett. 


366 


GETTYSBURG 


[1863. 


his  own  terms;  but  now  lie  had  nothing  before  him  but  retreat 
and  perhaps  a  greater  disaster  before  he  could  recross  the  Poto- 
mac, and  that  meant  the  end  of  the  Confederacy  and  of  all  his 
hopes.  That  night  he  made  preparations  to  send  his  trains 
southward,  while  the  soldiers  threw  up  earthworks  along  their 
lines  to  guard  against  an  attack  by  the  enemy.  About  noon  of 
the  next  day  rain  began  to  fall  in  torrents,  and  the  face  of  the 
country  was  soon  covered  with  water.  The  meadows  became 
lakes  and  the  roads  were  gullied  by  raging  streams.  Toward 
four  o'clock  the  army  wagons,  ambulances,  and  artillery-car- 
riages began  the  retreat.  The  wounded,  few  of  whom  had 
had  medical  attendance  and  many  of  whom  had  had  nothing  to 

eat  for  thirty-two  hours, 
were  laid  on  the  bare 
boards  of  the  wagons, 
many  without  straw,  and 
exposed  to  the  cold 
drenching  rain.  The 
horses  and  mules  were 
blinded  by  the  violence 
of  the  storm  and  almost 
unmanageable,  and  the 
roar  of  the  wind  and  the 
rushing  waters  made  it 
nearly  impossible  to  give 
orders;  but  above  all  the 
tumult  were  heard  the 
heart-rending  groans  and 
wails  of  agony  of  the  wounded  as  they  were  jolted  along  over 
the  rocky  roads.  Some  were  praying,  some  cursing,  and  some 
sobbing;  and  while  many  called  on  their  friends  to  kdl  them 
and  put  them  out  of  their  misery,  others  thought  only  of  home 
and  their  dear  wives  and  children.  General  Imboden,  to  whom 
General  Lee  had  given  the  care  of  the  tram,  says  it  was  the 
most  awful  scene  he  ever  witnessed.  All  night  long  the  great 
train — it  was  seventeen  miles  long — moved  rapidly  on,  for  there 
was  no  time  to  lose,  not  even  to  give  the  wounded  the  water 
which  they  craved.  The  enemy  might  cut  them  off  from  the 
river,  and  that  would  end  in  the  destruction  or  capture  of  the 
whole  army.     Williamsport  was  reached  in  the  afternoon  of 


Winfield  Scott  Hancock. 


1863.]  WASTED  AMMUNITION.  367 

July  5.     No  enemy  was  in  sight,  but  the  rains  had  raised  the 
river  ten  feet  and  the  fords  were  impassable. 

General  Sedgwick,  with  the  Sixth  Corps,  pursued  the  re- 
treating enemy  and  came  up  with  the  Confederate  rear  at  the 
Fairfield  Pass  of  the  South  Mountains,  but  the  Pass  was  too 
strong  to  be  taken,  and  General  Meade  ordered  him  to  turn  back, 
and  marched  with  his  whole  army  down  the  east  side  of  the 
mountains,  while  the  Confederates  passed  down  the  west  side. 
He  came  up  with  them  on  the  12th,  on  the  banks  of  the  Poto- 
mac, but  did  not  attack.  Lee  held  his  position  until  a  pontoon 
bridge  could  be  built,  when  the  whole  army  crossed  into  Vir- 
ginia in  safety,  marched  through  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and 
retired  behind  the 
Eapidan  Piiver. 

The  Union  loss 
in  the  battle  of  Get- 
tysburg was   more 

,;  ,  ,,  Austrian  Musket  Bent  by  Cannon-Ball. 

than    twenty-three 

thousand;  that  of  the  Confederates  nearly  thirty  thousand. 
There  were  picked  up  on  the  battle-field  twenty-seven  thou- 
sand five  hundred  guns,  of  which  twenty-four  thousand  were 
loaded,  half  of  them  double-loaded.  Many  had  five  or  six 
balls  in  to  one  charge  of  powder,  and  in  one  musket  were 
found  twenty-three  balls  and  sixty-two  buckshot  all  mixed  up 
with  the  powder.  In  some  cases  the  powder  was  found  on  top 
of  the  ball,  and  in  others  the  cartridges  were  put  in  unopened.* 
Many  of  these  guns  were  probably  in  the  hands  of  men  who 
were  struck  down  before  they  had  time  to  fire  them,  but  the 
greater  part  of  them  were  loaded  by  persons  so  excited  that 
they  did  not  know  what  they  were  doing.  Few  soldiers  keep 
cool  enough  in  battle  not  to  waste  any  ammunition,  and  most 
of  the  shots  fired  generally  go  over  the  heads  of  the  combatants. 
Indeed,  it  has  been  said  that  every  soldier  wastes  his  weight  in 
lead  before  he  kills  a  man.  In  the  pictures  are  shown  an  Aus- 
trian gun  which  was  struck,  during  the  battle  of  Gettysburg, 
by  a  cannon-ball  and  bent  out  of  shape,  without  being  knocked 

*  In  those  days,  when  guns  were  generally  loaded  at  the  muzzle  and 
fired  by  percussion  caps,  the  cartridges  were  made  of  paper,  and  the  sol- 
dier had  to  bite  off  the  end  so  as  to  open  the  powder  before  putting  it  into 
the  gun. 


368  GETTYSBURG.  [1863. 

out  of  the  hand  of  the  soldier  who  held  it,  and  the  end  of  a  Im- 
pounder brass  cannon  which  was  hit  by  a  cannon-shot  and 
wounded  so  as  to  imprison  its  own  ball  at  the  muzzle. 

Most  of  the  people  of  Gettysburg  left  their  homes  on  the' 
approach  of  the  Confederates,  but  among  the  citizens  was  one 
old  man  named  John  Burns,  a  veteran  of  the  war  of  1812,  who 
had  no  notion  of  running  away.  When  he  heard  that  the 
enemy  was  marching  on  the  town,  he  took  down  his  old  State 
musket  and  began  running  bullets. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  with  those  bullets?"  asked  his 
wife,  who  had  anxiously  watched  his  movements. 

"  Oh,"  replied  he,  "I  thought  some  of  the  boys  might  want 
the  old  gun,  and  I'm  getting  it  ready  for  them." 

When  the  Union  troops  passed  through  the  streets,  he 
seized  his  gun  and  started  out. 

"  Where  are  you  going?"  called  the  old  lady  after  him. 

"  Going  to  see  what  is  going  on,"  he  answered. 

He  went  to  a  Wisconsin  regiment  and  asked  the  men  if  he 
might  join  them.  They  gave  him  three  rousing  cheers  and  told 
him  to  fall  in.  A  rifle  was  given  him  in  place  of  his  old  gun,  and 
twenty-five  rounds  of  cartridges.  The  old  man  fought  bravely 
in  the  first  day's  fight,  and  received  three  wounds.  When  the 
Union  troops  fell  back  he  Avas  left  with  the  other  wounded  on 
the  battle-field,  and  was  found  there  by  the  Confederates.  As 
he  was  in  citizen's  dress,  he  knew  they  would  shoot  him  'if 
they  found  out  that  he  had  been  fighting  against  them,  so 
when  they  said  to  him,  "  Old  man,  what  are  you  doing  here?" 
he  replied: 

"  I  am  lying  here  wounded,  as  you  see." 

"But  what  business  had  you  here,  and  who  wounded  you, 
our  troops  or  yours?" 

"  I  don't  know  who  wounded  me;  I  only  know  that  I  am 
wounded  and  in  a  bad  fix." 

"Well,  what  were  you  doing  here?  What  was  your  busi- 
ness?" 

He  told  "them  that  he  was  going  home  across  the  fields,  and 
got  caught  in  the  scrape  before  he  knew  it.  They  asked  him 
where  he  lived,  and  carried  him  home  and  left  him  there; 
they  evidently  suspected  him,  for  they  asked  him  many  more 
questions,  but  old  Burns  stuck  to  his  story,  and  they  finally  left 


1863.]  JENNT  WADE.  369 

him.     After  the  battle  a  great  many  people  went  to  see  him 
and  gave  him  many  presents. 

There  was  a  heroine  as  well  as  a  hero  among  the  people  of 
Gettysburg.  Before  the  battle,  Jenny  Wade  was  baking  bread 
for  the  Union  soldiers.  She  was  in  a  house  within  range  of 
the  guns,  and  when  the  Confederates  drove  the  Union  troops 
through  the  town  and  forced  them  to  take  refuge  on  Cemetery 
Hill,  they  ordered  her  to  leave.  But  she  refused  and  kept  at 
her  work  even  while  the  battle  was  going  on.  While  busy  with 
her  baking  a  Minie  ball  passed  through  her  breast  and  killed 
her  almost  instantly.  She  was  laid  in  a  coffin  which  had  been 
prepared  for  a  Confederate  officer,  slain  about  the  same  time, 
and  now  lies  on  Cemetery  Hill,  where  the 
battle  raged  hottest  that  day. 

When  the  first  news  from  Gettysburg 
reached  Eichmond  it  was  reported  that 
General  Lee  had  won  a  great  victory  and 
had  taken  forty  thousand  prisoners.  There 
was  great  rejoicing,  and  people  congratu- 
lated each  other  that  the  bloody  struggle  ^_==^ 
was  near  its  end  and  that  the  dream  of  in- 
dependence was  soon  to  be  realized.  One  wounded  Cannon. 
of  the  Richmond  newspapers  imagined  "the  second  city  on  the 
continent  open  to  our  armies,  and  already  reckoning  up  the 
number  of  millions  it  must  pay  to  ransom  it  from  pillage  and 
conflagration.  ...  In  Philadelphia,  how  the  Quakers 
quake  this  day.  In  AVashington,  how  the  whole  brood  of  Lin- 
coln and  his  rascal  ministers  turn  pale."  Another  newspaper 
suggested  as  an  epitaph  for  General  Meade  the  following  from 
the  gravestone  of  an  infant: 

"  If  so  soon  I'm  done  for, 
Wonder  what  I  was  begun  for." 

But  soon  rumors  that  all  was  not  as  they  could  wish  it  to  be 
began  to  fill  the  air.  No  one  knew  whence  they  came,  but  an 
uneasy  feeling  began  to  spread  and  people  asked  each  other 
what  they  meant.  At  last  the  dread  truth  could  be  kept  back  no 
longer,  and  it  became  known  to  all  that  instead  of  marching  as 
conquerors  toward  Philadelphia  or  Washington,  Lee's  shattered 
legions  were  falling  back  to  seek  safety  once  more  across  the 


370 


GETTYSBURG. 


[1863. 


Potomac.  On  the  heels  of  this  calamity  came  the  dread  news 
from  Vicksburg,  where  Grant  and  Pemberton  had  settled  the 
terms  of  surrender  under  the  oak  tree  at  the  very  hour  when 
Longstreet  had  made  his  last  grand  charge  on  Cemetery  Ridge. 
Up  to  this  time  people  had  had  strong  hopes  of  success,  but 
now  doubt  began  to  fill  their  hearts.  The  whole  Confederacy 
received  a  shock  from  which  it  never  recovered,  and  by  the 
close  of  the  year  the  Confederate  paper  dollar  was  worth  only 
two  cents  in  gold. 


Culpeper  Court-House. 

The  joy  throughout  the  North  equalled  the  sorrow  in  the 
Confederacy,  for  every  man  felt  that  the  Union  had  escaped 
the  greatest  danger  which  had  ever  threatened  it;  yet  the  peo- 
ple were  not  altogether  satisfied  with  the  result,  for  there  was  a 
very  general  feeling  that  the  Confederate  army  should  have  been 
closely  followed  up  and  forced  to  fight  again.  On  the  14th  of 
July,  after  Lee  had  escaped  across  the  Potomac,  Halleck  tele- 
graphed to  General  Meade  that  the  escape  of  Lee's  army 
without   another    battle   had  caused  great  dissatisfaction  in 


1863.]  IN  VIRGINIA  AGAIN.  371 

the  mind  of  the  President.  General  Meade  replied  by  asking 
to  be  relieved  of  the  command,  bnt  this  was  refused.  Meade 
then  crossed  the  Potomac  and  followed  Lee  to  Culpeper  Court- 
House,  when  Lee  fell  back  across  the  Rapidan.  The  Confeder- 
ate government,  believing  that  the  campaign  in  Virginia  was 
over  for  the  year,  sent  Longstreet  with  part  of  Lee's  army  to 
the  aid  of  Bragg,  who  was  then  opposing  Rosecrans  at  Chatta- 
nooga. Meade's  force  was  also  much  reduced,  some  troops 
being  sent  to  aid  in  the  siege  of  Charleston,  some  to  put  down 
the  draft  riots  in  New  York,  and  finally,  after  Rosecrans's  de- 
feat at  Chickamauga,  General  Hooker  was  sent  to  Tennessee 
with  the  Eleventh  and  Twelfth  Corps.  After  that,  Meade  and 
Lee  watched  each  other  closely,  and  though  there  were  several 
fights,  no  general  battle  took  place  during  the  remainder  of  the 
year.  In  the  latter  part  of  November,  Meade  made  preparations 
to  move  against  Lee,  but  bad  weather  delayed  him  and  the 
attempt  was  given  up,  and  both  armies  finally  went  into  winter 
quarters. 


Infantry  Charge. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 
CHICKAMAUGA.— CHATTANOOGA.— KNOXVILLE. 

Rosecrans  Moves  against  Bragg.— Cavalry  Fights.— Van  Dorn  Attacks  Franklin.— 
Streight's  Raid.— John  Morgan  Across  the  Ohio.— Indiana  and  Ohio  Aroused.— Mor- 
gan Defeated.— His  Capture.— The  Raiders'  Plunder.— An  Old  Hero.— Chattanooga. 
—Bragg  Falls  Back.— Battle  of  Chickamauga.— Thomas's  Bravery.— Rosecrans  Re- 
treats to  Chattanooga.— Johnny  Clem.— Half  Rations.— Grant  in  Command.— He 
Opens  Communications.— Burnside  in  East  Tennessee.— Arrival  of  Sherman.— The 
Battle  above  the  Clouds.— Pulpit  Rock.— Storming  of  Missionary  Ridge.— Here  is 

your  Mule.— Bragg's  Retreat.— Longstreet's  Defeat Sherman's  March  to  Knox- 

ville.— Starving  on  Roast  Turkey. 

AFTEK  taking  Murfreesboro,  General  Rosecrans  remained 
inactive  for  a  long  time.  In  the  spring  of  1863  he  was 
urged  to  move  against  General  Bragg,  who  with  more  than  fifty 
thousand  men  was  posted  not  far  south  of  Murfreesboro.  Rose- 
crans had  about  sixty  thousand  men,  but  was  not  so  strong  in 
cavalry  as  the  Confederates.  He  had,  too,  to  draw  most  of  his 
supplies  from  Louisville  over  a  single  line  of  railroad,  which 
required  many  men  to  guard,  for  the  greater  part  of  it  ran 
through  a  hostile  country. 

There  were  many  cavalry  raids  during  the  early  months  of 
the  year,  so  that  both  sides  were  kept  busy.  In  February,  Gen- 
eral Wheeler,  Bragg's  chief  of  cavalry,  tried  to  capture  Fort 
Donelson,  so  as  to  stop  the  navigation  of  the  Cumberland  River, 
by  which  some  of  Rosecrans's  sujoplies  came  in  steamboats  to 
Nashville.  The  fort  had  not  been  repaired  after  its  capture  by 
Grant,  but  the  village  of  Dover  near  it  had  been  fortified,  and 
it  was  then  held  by  Colonel  A.  C.  Harding  with  about  six  hun- 
dred men.  The  Union  men  fought  bravely,  and  in  the  evening 
the  gunboat  Fair  Play  came  up  and  opened  a  fire  on  the  Con- 
federates, which  drove  them  away  in  confusion,  with  a  loss  of 
more  than  five  hundred  men.  Harding's  loss  was  one  hundred 
and  twenty-six. 

Early  in  March,  General  Van  Dorn  appeared  near  Franklin 
with  a  large  force  of  mounted  men.  Colonel  Colburn,  of  the 
Thirty-third  Indiana,  moved  southward  from  Franklin  with 
twenty-seven  hundred  men.  Van  Dorn  and  Forrest  met  him, 
and  after  a  fight  of  several  hours  Colburn  had  to  surrender 


1863.]  CAVALRY  RAIDS.  373 

with  thirteen  hundred  of  his  men.  Soon  afterward  Colonel 
Hall  with  about  fourteen  hundred  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois 
troops  had  a  fight  with  John  Morgan.  After  a  struggle  of 
three  hours  the  latter  was  defeated  with  a  loss  of  three  or  four 
hundred  killed  and  wounded. 

In  April,  Van  Dorn  again  attacked  Franklin,  where  General 
Gordon  Granger  was  in  command  of  about  five  thousand  troops. 
Van  Dorn,  with  a  force  nearly  twice  as  large,  assaulted  a  fort 
which  the  Union  troops  were  building,  but  the  few  guns  which 
had  been  mounted  opened  a  destructive  fire  upon  him  in  front, 
while  the  Union  cavalry  attacked  his  rear.  He  was  obliged  to 
fall  back  with  a  loss  of  five  hundred  prisoners  and  many  killed 
and  wounded;  but  he  recovered  most  of  jis  prisoners,  and  re- 
tired safely  to  Spring  Hill.  Van  Dorn  was  soon  after  shot  in 
his  tent  by  a  Southern  gentleman  whose  wife  he  had  insulted. 
Though  Van  Dorn  was  surrounded  by  his  staff  officers,  the 
gentleman  succeeded  in  mounting  a  horse  and  escaping  in  safety 
to  Nashville. 

In  the  latter  part  of  April,  Colonel  A.  D.  Streight  was  sent 
with  a  force  of  about  eighteen  hundred  men  around  Bragg's 
army,  Avith  orders  to  cut  railroads  and  destroy  bridges,  depots 
of  supplies,  factories,and  do  everything  that  would  tend  to  injure 
the  Confederate  cause.  After  doing  a  great  deal  of  damage, 
Streight  was  overtaken  near  Borne,  Georgia,  by  Forrest,  with 
about  four  thousand  cavalry,  and  obliged  to  surrender.  They 
were  all  sent  to  Richmond,  and  shut  up  in  Libby  Prison,  in 
which  so  many  Union  men  were  confined  during  the  war.  In 
the  following  February,  Streight  and  about  one  hundred  of  his 
officers  escaped  by  making  a  tunnel  under  the  walls  of  their 
prison. 

But  the  most  famous  raid  of  this  time  was  that  made  in 
July  by  John  Morgan  across  the  Ohio  River.  General  Buck- 
ner  was  then  in  East  Tennessee,  near  the  borders  of  Kentucky, 
getting  ready  to  make  another  dash  toward  Louisville,  and  Mor- 
gan went  ahead  to  prepare  the  way.  He  crossed  the  Cumber- 
land River  into  Kentucky  with  about  three  thousand  mounted 
men,  sacked  Columbia,  captured  Lebanon  with  four  hundred 
prisoners,  and  rode  on  through  Bardstown  to  Brandenburg  on 
the  Ohio  River,  plundering  and  destroying  as  he  went.  Many 
Kentuckians  had  joined  him  on  the  way,  and  he  then  had  four 


374      CEICKAMAUG A.— CHATTANOOGA.— KNOXYILLE.  [1863. 

thousand  men  and  ten  pieces  of  artillery.  The  advance  of 
Rosecrans's  army  just  at  that  time  prevented  Buckner  from 
joining  him,  and  Morgan  determined  to  cross  into  Indiana. 
There  were  two  gunboats  in  the  river,  but  he  kept  them  off 
with  his  artillery  while  his  men  crossed  on  two  captured  steam- 
boats. Morgan  then  rode  through  Indiana  toward  Cincinnati, 
fighting  home  guards,  tearing  up  railroads,  burning  bridges  and 
mills,  and  capturing  much  property.  The  whole  State  was 
aroused  by  the  danger,  and  thousands  of  armed  men  started 
after  the  bold  riders.  Morgan  became  alarmed,  and  after  pass- 
ing around  Cincinnati,  almost  within  sight  of  its  steeples,  turned 
toward  the  Ohio  to  cross  again  into  Kentucky.  A  large  Union 
force  was  following,  others  were  advancing  on  his  flanks,  and 
gunboats  and  steamboats  filled  with  armed  men  were  moving 
up  the  river  to  cut  him  off.  The  people  aided  the  pursuers  all 
they  could  by  cutting  down  trees  and  barricading  the  roads  to 
stop  Morgan's  march.  He  was  so  delayed  by  these  and  other 
things. that  he  did  not  reach  the  Ohio  until  July  19th.  He 
hoped  to  cross  at  a  place  called  Buffington  Ford,  but  the  Union 
men  were  upon  him,  and  he  had  to  turn  and  fight.  After  a 
severe  battle,  in  which  the  Union  troops  were  helped  by  gun- 
boats which  cut  off  the  raiders  from  crossing  the  ford,  about 
eight  hundred  of  Morgan's  men  surrendered,  and  the  rest,  with 
Morgan  himself,  fled  up  the  river  fourteen  miles  to  Bellville, 
wdiere  they  tried  to  cross  by  swimming  their  horses.  About 
three  hundred  men  had  succeeded  in  getting  over  when  the  gun- 
boats came  up  and  opened  fire  on  them.  A  fearful  scene  en- 
sued, for  it  was  a  struggle  of  life  and  death.  Amid  shots  from 
the  boats,  the  riders  urged  on  their  snorting  horses.  Some  got 
across,  some  were  shot,  and  some  drowned.  Morgan  was  not 
among  the  fortunate  ones  who  escaped.  With  about  two  hun- 
dred men  he  fled  further  up  the  river  to  Xew  Lisbon,  where  he 
was  surrounded  and  forced  to  surrender. 

This  was  a  wonderful  raid,  but  it  did  not  do  the  Confeder- 
ate cause  any  good.  A  large  part  of  the  property  destroyed 
was  private  property,  and  this  roused  the  anger  of  all  the  peo- 
ple of  the  Border  States,  a  large  part  of  whom  had  before  taken 
little  interest  in  carrying  on  the  Avar.  The  battle-field  and  the 
roads  leading  from  it  were  strewn  with  articles  never  seen  in 
such  places  before.     Mingled  with  broken  arms,  haversacks,  and 


1863.]  AW  OLD  HERO.  375 

cartridge-boxes,  one  could  pick  up  almost  any  article  of  house- 
hold use  or  personal  wear — crockery  and  tinware,  cutlery, 
spoons,  boots  and  shoes,  hats,  caps,  and  bonnets,  pieces  of 
calico  and  silk,  ribbons,  women's,  men's,  and  children's  cloth- 
ing, and  all  kinds  of  useful  things.  On  the  persons  of  the  cap- 
tured were  found  many  watches  and  much  jewelry,  and  a  good 
deal  of  money,  both  "greenbacks"  and  Confederate  notes. 
Morgan  and  some  of  his  officers  were  sent  to  Columbus  and 
confined  in  the  penitentiary,  from  which  he  and  six  others 
escaped  in  the  following  November  by  making  a  hole  through 
the  bottom  of  their  cell  and  digging  a  tunnel  under  the  foun- 
dations of  the  building  into  the  prison-yard.  Their  only  tools 
for  doing  this  work  were  two  small  knives.  They  then  scaled 
the  walls  by  means  of  a  rope  made  of  their  bed  clothes,  and 
traveled  on  the  cars  until  near  Cincinnati,  when  they  jumped 
off  the  rear  car,  and,  crossing  the  Ohio  in  a  small  boat,  reached 
the  Confederate  lines  in  safety. 

Among  the  mortally  wounded  in  the  fight  at  Buffington 
Ford  was  Major  Daniel  McCook,  the  father  of  eight  sons,  all 
of  whom  Avere  in  the  Union  service,  and  four  of  whom  became 
generals.  One  of  his  sons,  General  Robert  L.  McCook,  had 
been  murdered  by  guerrillas  in  Tennessee,  while  riding  sick  in 
an  ambulance.  The  old  gentleman,  who  was  born  in  1796, 
heard  that  the  man  who  had  killed  his  son  was  with  Morgan, 
and  hastened  from  Cincinnati  with  his  rifle  to  join  the  pursuers. 
He  was  shot  in  the  breast,  and  though  tenderly  cared  for,  died 
two  days  afterward. 

General  Rosecrans  began  to  march  against  Bragg  on  the  23d 
of  June.  His  army  was.  divided  into  three  corps,  under  com- 
mand of  Generals  Thomas,  A.  McDowell  McCook,  and  Crit- 
tenden. Rosecrans's  object  was  to  capture  Chattanooga,  which, 
it  will  be  remembered,  General  Buell  had  tried  to  take  in  18C2. 
Chattanooga,  which  in  the  Indian  language  means  Hawk's  Nest, 
is  a  small  town  in  one  of  the  passes  of  the  mountains  which 
separate  the  Atlantic  part  of  the  Southern  States  from  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley.  There  are  several  of  these  passes  or  gaps 
through  the  ranges  of  mountains,  but  that  in  which  Chatta- 
nooga lies  is  one  of  the  most  important,  because  through  it  runs 
the  Tennessee  River  and  the  railroads  connecting  the  eastern 
with  the  western  part  of  the  Southern  States.     If  the  Union 


376      CHICKAMAUGA.— CHATTANOOGA.— KNOXVILLE.  [1863. 

troops  could  take  Chattanooga,  the  Confederacy  would  be  not 
only  cut  off  from  the  Mississippi  Valley,  but  would  also  be  in 
danger  of  an  attack  in  the  rear. 

Heavy  rains  made  the  roads  almost  impassable,  so  that  Bose- 
crans  could  move  but  slowly.  Instead  of  waiting  to  fight  in 
Tennessee,  as  Rosecrans  expected,  Bragg  fell  back  before  him 
to  Bridgeport,  in  Alabama,  losing  many  men  by  desertion  in 
the  retreat.  Eosecrans  followed,  repairing  the  railroad  as  he 
went,  and  bringing  forward  his  supplies.  Bragg  then  crossed 
the  Tennessee  Eiver,  and  made  his  way  to  Chattanooga.  Eose- 
crans, not  feeling  strong  enough  to  attack  him  there,  moved 
around  the  Confederate  left  as  if  he  were  going  to  leave  Chatta- 
nooga and  march  into  Georgia.  In  the  first  part  of  September, 
General  Crittenden  was  at  Wauhatchie  (see  map),  General 
Thopaas  at  Trenton,  and  General  McCook  at  Valley  Head.  To 
keep  Eosecrans  from  moving  on  Eome  and  Atlanta,  Bragg  gave 
up  Chattanooga,  and  fell  back  to  Lafayette.  Eosecrans,  having 
thus  manoeuvred  his  enemy  out  of  Chattanooga,  took  possession 
of  that  place,  and  leaving  a  brigade  to  hold  it,  prepared  to  pur- 
sue Bragg,  whom  he  thought  to  be  retreating.  But  Bragg,  who 
had  been  joined  by  Buckner's  army  and  other  reinforcements, 
and  who  knew  that  Longstreet  was  on  his  way  to  him  from  Vir- 
ginia, had  made  up  his  mind  to  fight,  and  was  moving  toward 
the  Union  forces. 

On  the  morning  of  September  19  the  two  armies  were  op- 
posite each  other  in  the  valley  of  tli3  Chickamauga,  a  little 
stream  which  flows  northwardly  until  it  empties  into  the  Ten- 
nessee above  Chattanooga.  In  the  language  of  the  Indians  who 
used  to  live  among  these  mountains,  Chickamauga  means  the 
Eiver  of  Death.  It  was  probably  so  called  from  its  stagnant 
waters,  which  move  so  sluggishly  as  to  make  its  neighborhood 
sickly,  but  it  was  soon  to  have  another  reason  for  its  name. 
Bragg's  plan  of  battle  was  to  drive  back  Eosecrans's  left,  so  as  to 
get  between  him  and  Chattanooga.  The  battle  began  about 
ten  o'clock  and  lasted  all  day,  with  no  gain  for  either  side,  the 
Confederates  failing  to  get  possession  of  the  road  leading  to 
Chattanooga.  About  midnight  Longstreet  arrived,  and  was 
given  command  of  the  left  wing  of  Bragg's  army,  while  Polk 
commanded  the  right  wing.  In  the  Union  army  McCook 
held  the  right,   opposite  Longstreet,   Crittenden  the    centre, 


1863.] 


CHATTANOOGA  AND    VICINITY. 


377 


Chattanooga  and  the  Battle  of  Chickamauga. 

and  Thomas  the  left,  opposite  the  Confederates  under  Polk, 
or  the  end  of  the  line  toward  Chattanooga. 


378      CHICEAMAUGA.— CHATTANOOGA.— KNOXVILLE.  [1863. 


The  morning  of  September  20  opened  with  a  thick  mist, 
which  hid  the  whole  valley.  But  about  ten  o'clock  this  was 
driven  away  by  the  sun,  and  the  struggle  began.  The  battle 
was  fought  with  great  bravery  on  both  sides.  Thomas  repulsed 
Polk's  attack,  but  the  Union  right,  where  Rosecrans  himself 
was,  was  badly  beaten  by  Longstreet.  The  right  and  centre  of 
the  Union  army  broke  and  fled  in  confusion  to  Chattanooga. 
Rosecrans  lost  his  presence  of  mind,  and  riding  to  Chattanooga 
telegraphed  to  Washington  that  his  army  had  been  defeated. 
Meanwhile  Thomas  held  his  position  firmly.  Sheridan  suc- 
ceeded in  rallying  some 
of  the  fugitives  and 
joined  him.  In  vain  the 
Confederates  assailed 
him,  but  he  repelled 
every  attack  until  sun- 
set, when  the  battle 
ended.  Under  cover  of 
the  night  Thomas  with- 
drew in  good  order  to 
Rossville  (see  map), 
where  he  remained  dur- 
ing the  next  day;  but 
he  was  not  attacked 
again,  and  that  evening 
he  fell  back  to  Chatta- 
nooga, where  the  rest  of 
the  army  was. 

The  battle  of  Chicka- 
mauffa  thus  ended  in  a 


Johnny  Clem. 


great  victory  for  the  Confederates,  but  it  was  not  worth  much 
to  them,  as  Rosecrans  still  held  Chattanooga.  The  losses  of  the 
two  armies  were  very  nearly  equal,  about  seventeen  thousand  on 
each  side.  All  the  Union  dead  and  wounded  were  left  in  the 
hands  of  the  Confederates,  who  took  also  many  prisoners,  fifty 
cannons,  and  about  fifteen  thousand  small-arms. 

Among  the  incidents  of  Chickamauga  the  story  of  Johnny 
Clem  is  one  of  the  most  interesting.  He  was  an  Ohio  boy,  but 
was  a  volunteer  in  the  Twenty-second  Michigan,  and  was  only 
twelve  years  old.     He  was  with  his  regiment  in  the  thickest  of 


1863.] 


GRANT  SUCCEEDS  ROSECRANS. 


379 


the  fight,  and  had  three  bullets  through  his  hat.  During  the 
confusion  he  became  separated  from  his  comrades,  and  was  run- 
ning, gun  in  hand,  across  an  open  space,  when  a  Confederate 
colonel  on  horseback  rode  after  him,  shouting:  "  Stop!  you  lit- 
tle Yankee  devil!"  Johnny,  seeing  that  his  pursuer  would  head 
him  off,  halted,  and  brought  his  musket  to  an  order.  The 
officer  rode  up  to  make  him  a  prisoner,  but  in  an  instant  the 
boy  threw  up  his  gun  and  fired,  instantly  killing  the  colonel. 
For  this  deed  he  was  made  a  sergeant,  and  put  on  duty  at  head- 
quarters. The  picture,  which  is  from  a  photograph  taken  after 
the  war,  shows  him  in  the  act  of  bringing  up  his  gun  to  fire. 

Eosecrans  fortified  Chattanooga,  and  made  his  position  so 
strong  that  Bragg  could  not  safely  attack  it;  so  the  Confed- 
erate commander  made 
preparations  to  starve  out 
his  enemy.  He  took  pos- 
session of  the  Tennessee 
River  and  the  roads  lead- 
ing to  Chattanooga,  and 
soon  Eosecrans  had  to 
draw  all  his  supplies  in 
wagons  over  one  rough 
mountain  road.  Food  be- 
came so  scarce  that  the 
men  were  put  on  half 
rations,  and  thousands  of 
horses  and  mules  died. 
The  autumn  storms  had  begun,  and  the  mud  was  so  deep  in  the 
roads  that  travel  was  almost  an  impossibility;  but,  wrote  one  of 
the  soldiers,  "we  get  along  pretty  well  by  stepping  from  mule 
to  mule  as  they  lie  dead  by  the  way." 

After  the  sad  news  from  Chickamauga  the  government  saw 
that  something  must  be  done  at  once  to  save  Eosecrans's  army, 
thus  cooped  up  in  Chattanooga.  The  Eleventh  and  Twelfth 
Corps  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  were  sent,  under  command 
of  General  Hooker,  to  Tennessee,  and  the  three  Departments 
of  the  Ohio  (Burnside's),  of  the  Cumberland  (Rosecrans's),  and 
of  the  Tennessee  (Grant's),  were  made  into  the  Military  Divi- 
sion of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  whole  command  given  to  Gen- 
eral Grant.     To  General  Thomas  was  given  the  command  of  the 


The  Chattanooga. 


380     CHICEAMAUGA.— CHATTANOOGA.— KNOXVILLE.  [1863. 

Army  of  tlie  Cumberland,  in  place  of  Rosecrans,  who  was  sent 
to  Missouri,  and  to  General  Sherman  that  of  the  Army  of  the 
Tennessee.  Grant  telegraphed  to  Thomas  to  "hold  Chatta- 
nooga at  all  hazards,"  and  started  for  that  place.  Thomas  re- 
plied: "I  will  hold  the  town  until  we  starve."  Grant  arrived 
on  the  23d  of  October,  and  at  once  began  operations  to  relieve 
the  place.  Within  four  days  he  had  got  possession  of  the  Ten- 
nessee River  to  Bridgeport,  and  opened  a  road  by  which  pro- 
visions could  be  sent  safely  into  Chattanooga,  A  little  steam- 
boat, which  the  soldiers  had  built,  soon  began  to  run  regularly 
from  Bridgeport  with  supplies,  and  thus  Bragg's  plan  of  starv- 
ing out  the  army  was  defeated.  He  tried  to  get  back  what  he 
had  lost  by  a  night  attack  on  the  Union  troops,  but  after  a 
three  hours'  fight  was  driven  back  with  heavy  loss.  =* 

Bragg's  army  was  somewhat  weakened  in  the  first  part  of 
November.  In  the  last  of  October,  President  Davis  had  made 
a  visit  to  Bragg's  camp.  Thinking  that  the  Union  army  was 
safely  shut  up  in  Chattanooga,  he  ordered  Longstreet  to  go  with 
his  division  to  Tennessee  to  try  to  take  Knoxville,  which  was 
then  held  by  General  Burnside.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
Burnside,  after  leaving  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  had  been  sent 
to  take  command  of  the  Department  of  the  Cumberland.  His 
army  of  about  twenty  thousand  men  was  stationed  near  Rich- 
mond, Kentucky,  but  in  August,  when  Rosecrans  moved  toward 
Chattanooga,  he  marched  across  the  mountains  into  East  Ten- 
nessee. On  the  9th  of  September  he  took  Knoxville,  with  two 
thousand  prisoners  and  fourteen  cannons,  Buckner,  the  Confed- 
erate commander,  going  southward  to  join  Bragg's  army.  It 
was  to  retake  this  place  and  to  regain  possession  of  East  Ten- 
nessee that  Longstreet  was  sent  northward  early  in  November. 
When  Grant  heard  of  this  movement  he  sent  word  to  Burnside 
to  hold  his  position  firmly,  and  promised  to  send  aid  as  soon  as 
he  could. 

On  the  15th  of  November,  Grant  was  joined  by  General 
Sherman,  who  had  marched  his  army  across  from  Iuka.  Grant 
had  then  about  eighty  thousand  men,  while  Bragg  did  not  have 
more  than  fifty  thousand.  The  situation  of  the  two  armies  may 
be  understood  by  looking  at  the  map  on  page  377.  Chatta- 
nooga, as  will  be  seen,  lies  on  the  south  side  of  the  Tennessee 
River,  in  the  mouth  of  the  Chattanooga  Valley,  named  from 


1863.] 


LOOKOUT  MOUNTAIN. 


381 


the  stream  which  runs  through  it.  This  valley  lies  between  two 
mountain  ridges.  The  westernmost  ridge  is  Lookout  Mountain, 
a  rocky,  tree-covered  height,  about  twenty-four  hundred  feet 
high.  It  is  said  that  six  States  may  be  seen  from  its  top.  On 
the  opposite  side  of  the  valley  is  Missionary  Kidge,  a  chain  of 
wooded  hills  so  called  because  the  early  Roman  Catholic  mis- 
sionaries had  schools  and  a  chapel  on  it  for  the  Cherokee 
Indians.  The  Confederate  line  extended  twelve  miles  along  the 
north  end  of  Missionary  Eidge,  across  the  valley  south  of 
Chattanooga,  and  on  Lookout  Mountain.  All  along  it  was  de- 
fended by  earthworks,  rifle-pits,  and  abatis.  Of  the  Union 
forces,  the  centre,  under  General  Thomas,  held  Chattanooga; 


Slope  of  Lookout  Mountain. 


the  right,  under  General  Hooker,  lay  near  the  foot  of  Lookout 
Mountain;  and  the  left,  under  General  Sherman,  lay  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Tennessee,  just  below  the  mouth  of  Chicka- 
mauga  Creek.  During  the  night  of  November  23,  Sherman  be- 
gan to  build  two  pontoon  bridges.  These  were  finished  by 
noon  of  the  next  day.  his  troops  passed  over,  and  by  the  middle 
of  the  afternoon  he  had  taken  possession  of  the  north  end  of 
Missionary  Eidge.  In  the  mean  time  Hooker  advanced  up 
Lookout  Mountain.  His  movements  were  hidden  by  a  dense 
fog  which  covered  the  valley.  The  slope  of  the  mountain  was 
covered  with  boulders  and  rocky  ledges  and  made  more  difficult 
to  ascend  by  trees  felled  so  that  their  limbs  lay  downward;  but 
the  hardy  soldiers  clambered  overall  obstructions,  cutting  away 


382     CHICKAMAUGA.— CHATTANOOGA.— KNOXVILLE.   [1863. 

the  trees  with  axes  as  they  went,  under  the  very  muzzles 
of  the  enemy's  cannon,  until  an  open  space  near  the  crest  was 
reached.  The  troops  had  been  ordered  to  halt  on  reaching  the 
high  ground,  but  they  had  been  so  successful  that  they  could 
not  be  held  back.  They  rushed  on  with  cheers  of  victory,  and 
after  a  few  sharp  fights  the  Confederates  broke  at  all  points  and 
fled  down  the  ravines  into  the  valley.      A  drizzling  rain  had 


Lookout  Mountain  seen  from  Chattanooga. 

been  falling  all  day,  and  the  fog  which  had  settled  through  the 
valley  hid  Hooker's  movements  from  view  below,  so  that  this 
fight  is  commonly  called  the  "Battle  above  the  Clouds."  In 
the  morning,  when  the  sun  drove  away  the  fog,  the  flag  of  the 
Union  was  seen  waving*from  Pulpit  Kock,*  on  the  crest  of  the 
mountain,  and  it  was  hailed  with  loud  cheers  by  all  the  army 

*  It  is  said  that  Jefferson  Davis  addressed  the  troops  from  this  rock  dur- 
ing his  visit  to  Bragg's  army. 


1863.] 


Missionary  ridgR 


383 


around  Chattanooga.  The  next  morning  Hooker  moved  down 
the  eastern  slope  of  the  mountain  and  drove  the  Confederates 
from  the  Chattanooga  Valley.  Bragg  then  stationed  his  whole 
army  along  the  crest  of  Missionary  Kidge. 

Early  the  same  morning  (25th)  Sherman  pushed  forward  on 
the  north  end  of  Missionary  Kidge.  Fighting  continued  steadily 
all  day  with  various  success.  The  Union  troojis  fought  with 
the  greatest  bravery,  but  they  did  not  gain  a  great  deal,  for 
Bragg  sent  the  best  of  his  troops  to  oppose  them.  Still  they 
did  not  lose  any  ground.  At  last  Grant,  seeing  that  Bragg  had 
greatly  weakened  his  centre  to 
fight  Sherman,  ordered  Thomas 
to  advance  across  the  valley  and 
drive  the  enemy  out  of  the  rifle- 
pits  along  the  foot  of  Mission- 
ary Kidge.  Under  the  lead  of 
Sheridan,  Wood,  and  Baird,  the 
men  charged  in  a  line.  The 
Confederates  in  the  rifle-pits 
did  not  wait  for  their  coming, 
but  swarmed  out  and  scampered 
up  the  hills.  The  Union  men 
could  not  be  held  back,  but 
pushed  on  steadily  through  a 
storm  of  canister  from  the  bat- 
teries above  and  of  bullets  from 
rifle-pits  in  their  front.  Up  the 
steep  side  of  the  ridge,  which  is 
about  three  fourths  of  a  mile 
high  at  this  place,  the  men  ad- 
vanced with  as  much  coolness 
as  if  on  drill.  But  when  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  Con- 
federates they  rushed  forward  with  a  whoop  and  a  yell,  and 
leaping  over  embankments,  ditches,  everything  in  their  way, 
sprang  into  the  enemy's  works  with  the  cry  of  "  Chickamauga!" 
The  Confederates  gave  way  before  them,  and  into  the  gap  thus 
made  the  Union  men  poured  as  they  came  up  the  hill.  Many 
prisoners  and  many  pieces  of  artillery  were  taken.  The  cap- 
tured guns  were  at  once  turned  on  the  flying  enemy,  who  scat- 
tered in  all  directions.     General  Bragg  rode  among  them,  try 


Pulpit  Rock. 


384     CUICKAMAUGA.— CHATTANOOGA.— KNOXVILLE.  [1863. 


ing  to  stay  the  rout.  In  vain  he  waved  his  sword  and  cried  to 
them,  "  Here  is  your  commander!"  The  men,  who  had  no  con- 
fidence in  him,  answered  with  one  of  the  slang  expressions  used 
in  the  army,  "  Here's  your  mule!"  and  Bragg  had  to  turn  his 
horse  and  ride  down  the  ridge  among  his  fleeing  troops.  Sher- 
man also  drove  the  enemy  in  his  front,  and  by  evening  the 
whole  Confederate  army,  forced  from  all  its  strong  positions, 
was  in  full  retreat. 

Bragg  fell  back  to  Dalton,  Georgia,  where  he  established  a 
fortified  camp.     He  was  much  blamed  by  the  Southern  people 

for  his  bad  management 
of  the  campaign,  and  his 
command  was  soon  after 
given  to  General  J.  E. 
Johnston.  But  President 
Davis,  who  was  a  strong 
friend  of  Bragg's,  called 
him  to  Kichmond  and 
made  him  general  under 
him  of  all  the  Confeder- 
ate armies. 

The  Confederate  losses 
in  the  battle  of  Chatta- 
nooga were  about  ten 
thousand  men,  of  whom 
six  thousand  were  pris- 
The  Union  loss   was   nearly  six 


James  Longstreet. 


oners,  and  forty-two   guns 
thousand. 

Longstreet,  who  had  gone  against  Burnside,  had  been  de- 
layed in  his  march  from  Chattanooga  and  did  not  assault 
Knoxville  until  November  17th.  His  attack  failed,  and, 
although  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  return  to  Bragg 
as  soon  as  possible,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  besiege  the  place, 
hoping  to  starve  out  Burnside;  but  when  news  came  of  Bragg's 
disaster,  knowing  that  Grant  would  send  aid  to  Burnside, 
he  felt  that  he  had  no  time  to  lose,  and  determined  to  make 
another  assault.  On  a  hill  commanding  the  road  into  the 
town  was  an  earthwork  called  Fort  Sanders.  Its  walls  were 
about  twenty  feet  high,  with  a  ditch  ten  feet  deep.  In  its 
front  the  trees  had  been  cut  so  as  to  fall  with  their  branches 


1863.] 


STARVING   ON  ROAST  TURKEY. 


385 


Hand-Grenade. 


outward,  and  wires  had  been  stretched  along  from  stump  to 
stump  to  trip  up  an  enemy  advancing  against  it.  On  the  29th 
of  November,  Longstreet  made  an  assault  on  this  fort.  The 
men.  struggled  through  the  abatis  under  a  deadly  fire  from 
cannon  and  small-arms,  and  some  crossed  the  ditch  and  tried 
to  climb  up  the  parapet;  but  they  were  hurled  back  by  the  be- 
sieged, and  hand-grenades*  were  thrown  into  the  ditch  which 
burst  among  the  struggling  mass,  killing  and  wounding  a  great 
many.  A  second  assault  was  tried,  but  in  vain;  the  Confeder- 
ates, though  they  fought  with  great  bravery,  could  not  carry  the 
work,  and  the  attempt  was  given  up 
after  more  than  five  hundred  of  them 
had  fallen. 

The  pursuit  of  Bragg  after  Chatta- 
nooga was  scarcely  ended  when  Grant  started  Sherman  toward 
Knoxville.  Burnside  had  sent  word  that  he  was  closely  be- 
sieged by  Longstreet,  that  his  provisions  were  short,  and  that 
unless  he  were  relieved  by  December  3,  he  might  have  to  sur- 
render. Sherman's  troops  were  nearly  worn  out  by  long 
marches  and  hard  work,  but  he  pushed  on  as  rapidly  as  the  bad 
roads  would  permit,  and  by  December  5  his  infantry  were 
within  fifteen  miles  of  Knox- 
ville. There  he  heard  that 
Longstreet  had  given  up  the 
siege  and  retreated  toward  Vir- 
ginia. Halting  his  army  to 
rest,  Sherman  rode  with  his 
staff  into  Knoxville  the  next 
day.  Within  the  lines  he  no- 
ticed a  large  pen  full  of  live 
cattle,  which,  he  says,  "did  not  look  much  like  starvation.'' 
On  going  to  dine  with  General  Burnside,  he  was  surprised  to 
find  a  dinner  served  in  good  style,  with  roast  turkey  among 
the  meats.   "Why,"  he  exclaimed,  "  I  thought  you  were  starv- 


Block-House  near  Chattanooga. 


*  Hand-grenades  are  commonly  small  shells  loaded  with  powder  and 
fitted  with  a  fuse  or  slow-match,  which  is  lighted  just  before  they  are 
thrown  at  an  enemy.  The  picture  shows  another  kind,  fitted  with  a  per- 
cussion-cap which  explodes  when  the  lower  end  strikes  any  hard  object. 
The  upper  end  has  a  shaft  fitted  with  feathers,  paper,  or  parchment  to 
guide  it  when  thrown.     This  kiml  is  often  used  in  naval  battles. 


386     CHICKAMAUGA.— CHATTANOOGA.— KNOXVILLE.  [1863. 

ing."  Burnside  explained  that  Longstreet  had  not  entirely 
surrounded  him,  and  that  he  had  all  the  time  been  able  to 
keep  open  communications  with  the  country.  "  If  I  had 
known  that,"  said  Sherman,  "I  should  not  have  hurried  my 
men  so  fast. 

Leaving  part  of  his  troops  Avith  Burnside,  Sherman  returned 
with  the  remainder  to  Chattanooga.  Cold  weather  soon  set  in, 
and  military  operations  came  to  an  end  for  the  season.  Earth- 
works were  thrown  up  and  block-houses  built  at  the  different 
places  to  be  held,  and  the  tired  soldiers  went  into  winter  quar- 
ters. Some  of  the  block-houses  built  by  them  were  very 
picturesque.  They  were  constructed  of  heavy  logs,  with  walls 
three  or  four  feet  thick,  and  had  a  lower  story  for  cannon  and 
an  upper  story  with  holes  for  musket  firing.  Underneath  was 
a  bomb-proof  magazine  for  the  ammunition. 


ARMSTRONG  GUN. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 
THE  MONITORS. 

Loss  of  the  Monitor.— The  Montauk  and  the  Nashville.— Fort  McAllister.— The  Con- 
federates Attack  the  Fleet  off  Charleston.— The  Monitors  Attack  Charleston. 
— The  New  Ironsides.— Cables  and  Torpedoes.— A  Terrible  Bombardment.— Loss  of 
the  Keokuk.— Capture  of  the  Atlanta.— New  Confederate  Flag.— I  Don't  Care 
About  Your  Torpedoes.— Gillmore  at  Charleston.— Fort  Wagner.— Men  Eighteen 
Feet  High  Wanted.— The  Swamp  Angel.— Sumter  in  Ruins.— Taking  of  Morris  Island. 
—Assault  on  Sumter.— Loss  of  the  Weehawken.— New  Berne  Attacked.— Little 
Washington.— Raids  and  Contrabands.— I'se  Just  Sam. 

THE  success  of  the  Monitor  had  induced  the  government 
to  build  other  armored  vessels  of  the  same  kind,  and  by  the 
beginning  of  1863  a  number  of  them  were  on  duty  along  the 
coast.  The  first  Monitor  had  been  lost  at  sea,  but  a  few  months 
after  her  famous  fight,  while  on  her  way  to  Port  Royal,  where 
she  had  been  ordered  with  two  other  monitors,  the  Passaic  and 
Montauk.  The  three  were  being  towed  down  the  coast  by 
steamers,  and  when  off  Cape  Hatteras  met  a  severe  gale.  The 
sea  broke  over  the  decks  and  pilot-houses  of  the  iron-clads,  and 
dashed  in  heavy  masses  against  the  bases  of  their  turrets.  This 
loosened  the  packing  around  the  Monitor's  turret,  and  she  began 
to  leak  so  badly  that  the  crew  had  to  work  the  pumps  and  to 
bale  with  buckets.  At  night  the  gale  increased.  A  great  wave 
would  lift  the  vessel,  and  when  she  came  down  the  flat  under 
part  of  her  deck  would  strike  the  water  so  heavily  as  to  cause 
other  leaks.  Though  the  pumps  were  worked  all  the  time,  the 
water  gained  and  put  out  the  fires.  Signals  of  distress  were 
then  made  to  ihe  Rhode  Island,  which  was  towing  her,  and 
boats  were  sent.  Part  of  the  crew  jumped  in  and  were  taken 
aboard  the  steamer.  The  rest  crowded  into  the  turret,  for  the 
water  had  driven  them  from  below.  The  boats  returned  and 
most  of  the  remaining  crew  got  into  them  and  were  saved,  but 
several  were  swept  off  by  the  waves  and  some  others  were  so 
frightened  that  they  would  not  leave  the  turret.  At  midnight 
her  light  was  still  seen  from  the  Rhode  Island,  but  a  few  min- 
utes after  it  disappeared:  the  Monitor  had  gone  to  the  bottom 
of  the  sea,  only  eleven  months  after  she  was  launched.     The 


388  THE  MONITORS.  [1863. 

Passaic  was  nearly  lost  in  the  same  storm,  but  by  hard  work  the 
men  succeeded  in  keeping  her  afloat,  and  she  and  the  Montauk 
arrived  safe  at  their  destination. 

In  the  following  February  (1863),  the  Montauk  and  several 
other  monitors  were  lying  in  the  mouth  of  the  Ogechee,  a  river 
of  Georgia,  which  flows  into  the  Atlantic  a  little  south  of  the 
Savannah  River.  A  few  miles  up  the  river  the  Confederates 
had  built  an  earthwork  called  Fort  McAllister,  to  guard  the 
bridge  over  which  passes  the  railway  running  southward  from 
Savannah,  and  to  protect  blockade-runners  which  might  go  in 
there.  Near  the  fort  lay  the  war-steamer  Nashville,  one  of  the 
privateers  (page  140)  fitted  out  by  the  Confederate  government 
to  prey  on  American  commerce,  waiting  for  a  chance  to  run 
out.  One  day  (Feb.  27)  Commander  Worden  (the  same  who 
had  fought  the  Merrimack),  who  was  then  in  command  of  the 
Montauk,  discovered  that  the  Nashville  was  aground  just  above 


Wreck  of  the  Nashvills:. 

the  fort.  The  next  morning  Worden  went  up  with  his  vessel 
and  fired  shells  at  her.  The  fort  returned  the  fire,  but,  although 
the  Monitor  was  hit  several  times,  no  damage  was  done.  In  a 
few  minutes  one  of  the  Montank's  shells  burst  inside  of  the 
Nashville,  setting  her  on  fire.  Her  guns  went  off  one  after  an- 
other, and  in  a  little  while  her  magazine  blew  up,  leaving  noth- 
ing of  the  vessel  but  a  few  charred  timbers  and  the  iron  skele- 
tons of  her  wheels. 

Admiral  Dupont,  seeing  how  well  the  Montauk  had  stood 
the  heavy  fire,  then  determined  to  make  an  attack  on  the  fort 
itself.  The  monitors  Passaic,  Montauk,  Ericsson,  Patapsco, 
and  Nahant,  and  some  schooners  with  heavy  mortars  on  board, 
steamed  up  the  river  (March  3)  and  opened  fire  on  the  fort; 
but,  on  account  of  piles  and  other  obstructions  in  the  river, 
they  could  not  get  near  enough  to  do  much  harm.     The  great 


1863.] 


NAVAL  FIGHT. 


389 


shells  tore  up  the  sand  around  the  fort  and  dismounted  one  of 
the  guns  in  it,  but  no  serious  damage  was  done,  and  after  wast- 
ing much  ammunition  the  attempt  was  given  up. 

A  short  time  before  this  (Jan.  31)  two  Confederate  iron-clad 
gunboats,  named  the  Palmetto  State  and  the  Chicora,  had  run 
out  of  Charleston  before  daylight  and  attacked  the  blockading 
fleet.  They  rammed  and  disabled  with  shells  the  Mercedita 
and  the  Keystone  State,  both  of  which,  having  holes  through 
their  steam-chests,  were  obliged  to  surrender;  but  as  soon  as  day 
dawned  the  other  Union  vessels  came  in  and  the  Confederates 
were  forced  to  retreat  into  the  harbor.     Both  the  injured  ves- 


New  Ironsides  and  a  Monitor. 


sels  were  saved,  but  the  Confederates  proclaimed  that  the  block- 
ade had  been  raised,  and  invited  foreign  nations  to  carry  on 
commerce  with  the  port  of  Charleston.  No  foreign  vessels 
thought  it  best  to  accept  this  invitation,  and  only  blockade- 
runners,  which  had  always  run  in  when  they  could,  continued  to 
steal  through  the  Union  fleet  whenever  they  saw  a  chance. 

Preparations  were  then  made  for  a  naval  attack  on  Charles- 
ton. It  was  not  of  much  military  importance,  but  as  its  in- 
habitants had  begun  the  war  there  was  a  strong  desire  through- 
out the  North  to  punish  them,  and  it  was  hoped  that  the  Union 
flag  might  take  the  place  of  the  Confederate  ensign  on  Sumter 
on  the  anniversary  of  its  capture.     In  the  beginning  of  April 


390  THE  MONITORS.  [1863. 

the  iron-clad  fleet  under  Admiral  Dupont  was  collected  near 
the  mouth  of  Charleston  harbor.  It  consisted  of  seven  moni- 
tors— the  Passaic,  Weehawken,  Montauk,  Patapsco,  Cattskill, 
Nantucket,  and  Nahaut — the  armor-plated  frigate  New  Iron- 
sides, and  the  Keokuk,  a  lighter  armored  ram,  with  two  sta- 
tionary turrets — that  is,  with  turrets  which  did  not  turn  round 
like  those  of  the  monitors.  There  were  also  some  wooden 
gunboats.  These  vessels  carried  the  heaviest  armament  which 
had  ever  before  been  used  in  naval  warfare:  the  monitors  car- 
ried each  two  to  four  11  and  15  inch  guns,  while  the  great 
New  Ironsides  was  armed  with  sixteen  11-inch  guns  and  two 
200-pounder  Parrott  guns.  They  carried  in  all  thirty-two  of 
these  monster  guns,  but  against  them  the  forts  could  bring  at 
least  three  hundred  great  cannons,  some  of  them  the  most  pow- 
erful English  rifled  guns. 

The  works  defending  Charleston  were  then  much  stronger 
than  when  Sumter  was  taken  in  1861  (page  50).  The  old  forts 
had  been  strengthened,  new  batteries  had  been  built,  and  the 

channels  leading  into  the  harbor 
had  been  obstructed  by  piles  driven 
into  the  bottom,  by  chains  and  ca- 
bles stretched  across,  and  by  torpe- 
Barrel  torpedo.  does.    Across  the  south  channel  was 

a  row  of  piles  in  which  had  been  left  an  opening  wide  enough 
for  a  vessel  to  go  through;  but  woe  to  the  enemy  that  tried  the 
passage!  On  the  bottom  lay  a  mine  of  several  thousand  pounds 
of  gunpowder,  ready  to  be  fired  by  electricity  from  the  forts, 
which  were  connected  with  it  by  wires  laid  underwater.  Across 
the  main  ship  channel,  between  Sumter  and  Moultrie,  was 
stretched  a  great  cable,  buoyed  up  by  empty  barrels,  which  held 
up  a  network  of  smaller  cables  and  lines  below  fastened  to  tor- 
pedoes. These  torpedoes  were  made  chiefly  of  common  bar- 
rels fitted  with  pointed  ends  of  solid  wood  and  filled  with  gun- 
powder, and  were  to  be  exploded  by  electricity  when  a  vessel 
became  entangled  in  the  network  of  ropes.  Another  kind  of 
torpedo  was  made  like  a  double  can  with  the  two  tops  fastened 
together.  The  lower  can  was  filled  with  gunpowder,  and  the 
upper  one,  which  was  hollow,  acted  as  a  buoy  to  float  it.  Above 
the  top  was  a  rod  with  a  head.  If  a  vessel  struck  one  of  these 
prongs,  some  percussion  powder  would  be  fired  within  the  can 


1863.]  IRONCLADS  AGAINST  FORTS.  391 

and  this  would  explode  the  torpedo,  which  might  blow  a  hole 
in  the  vessel's  bottom. 

About  noon  of  Tuesday,  April  7,  the  Union  fleet  steamed 
up  the  main  channel  against  the  forts,  the  Weehawken  leading. 
The  sea  was  as  smooth  as  glass;  not  a  man  was  to  be  seen  on 
any  of  the  decks,  the  vessels  moving  slowly  along  like  so  many 
sea  monsters  swimming  toward  their  prey.  The  captains  had 
orders  not  to  return  any  fire  from  the  batteries  on  Morris  Isl- 
and (see  map,  page  57),  but  to  get  as  near  to  Sumter  as  possi- 
ble and  then  to  aim  their  guns  at  it;  but  to  their  surprise  all 
the  outer  batteries  were  silent  as  they  passed  by.  The  Wee- 
hawken  had  a  kind  of  raft  which  it  pushed  ahead  to  explode 
torpedoes.  One  of  these  blew  up,  but  did  no  damage,  and  she 
went  on  until  she  came  to  the  network  of  cables  stretched  be- 
tween Sumter  and  Moultrie.  She  became  entangled  in  this, 
and  while  she  lay  helpless  in  the  tide,  unable  to  advance  or  to 
retreat,  Fort  Sumter  opened  its  batteries  upon  her.  The  other 
batteries  quickly  followed,  and  soon  all  along  the  low  sand-hills 
of  Morris  and  Sullivan's  Islands  the  smoke  leaped  out  from 
the  throats  of  the  great  guns  and  the  air  was  filled  with  their 
thunder  and  with  the  scream  of  shot  and  shell.  The  Wee- 
hawken  and  the  other  monitors  which  had  come  up,  seeing 
that  they  could  not  pass  the  cable,  turned  back  and  tried  to 
pass  up  the  south  channel,  between  Sumter  and  Cumming's 
Point,  but  were  stopped  again  by  the  rows  of  piles.  Com- 
mander Rodgers  knew  too  much  to  trust  his  vessel  in  the  open 
way  through  the  piles,  although  he  did  not  know  of  the  powder- 
mine  there  which  would  have  blown  the  Weehawken  to  atoms, 
and  again  turned  back. 

Admiral  Dupont  then  ranged  the  iron-clads  as  near  Sumter 
as  possible,  and  opened  fire  on  it.  The  New  Ironsides,  in  which 
he  was,  was  caught  in  the  tide  and  could  not  get  into  position 
at  once,  but  he  ordered  the  others  to  not  mind  her  and  to  do 
as  well  as  they  could.  They  opened  fire  with  all  the  guns  they 
could  bring  to  bear,  and  for  about  half  an  hour  kept  up  the 
unequal  fight.  But  the  Confederate  batteries  were  too  strong 
for  them,  and  soon  the  Keokuk,  which  had  gone  nearest  to 
Sumter,  was  disabled  and  crept  slowly  out  of  the  reach  of  shot. 
She  had  been  struck  more  than  ninety  times.  Both  her  turrets 
were  shot  through,  and  she  had  nineteen  holes  through  her 


392  THE  MONITORS.  [1863. 

hull,  some  large  enough  for  a  boy  to  creep  through.  She  went 
into  Light-House  Inlet  (see  map)  on  Morris  Island,  and  sunk 
there  in  the  evening.  Her  guns  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Con- 
federates. Some  of  the  monitors  also  were  badly  wounded  and 
had  their  turrets  jammed  so  that  they  would  not  turn,  and  the 
Ironsides  received  several  bad  shots. 

Admiral  Dupont,  seeing  that  it  was  impossible  to  take  or 
to  destroy  Sumter  with  his  monitors,  withdrew,  and  gave  up 
the  attempt.  Some  thought  that  he  ought  to  have  made  an- 
other attack  the  next  day,  but  the  most  skilful  of  his  officers 
said  that  a  second  trial  could  end  only  in  disaster. 

The  government  was  still  determined  to  take  Fort  Sumter,  if 
possible, and  soon  afterward  General  Gillmore,who  had  so  success- 
fully attacked  Fort  Pulaski,  was  sent  to  take  command  of  the  De- 
partment in  place  of  General  Hunter.  He  arrived  at  Port  Royal 
on  the  12th  of  June,  and  at  once  began  to  make  preparations 
for  another  attack  on  Charleston.  About  that  time  Admiral 
Dupont  found  out  from  some  Confederate  deserters  that  a 
powerful  iron-clad,  named  the  Atlanta,  was  about  to  come  down 
from  Savannah  to  raise  the  siege  of  Charleston.  She  was  a 
British  blockade-runner,  the  Fingal,  which  had  run  into  Savan- 
nah in  November,  18G1,  with  a  valuable  cargo  of  arms,  hoping 
to  run  out  again  with  a  load  of  cotton;  but  being  unable  to 
escape  after  the  fall  of  Fort  Pulaski,  she  had  been  turned  into 
an  iron-clad.  Fourteen  months  of  hard  work  had  been  spent 
on  her,  the  money  to  pay  for  it  having  been  furnished,  it  is  said, 
by  the  women  of  Savannah,  who  gave  their  jewelry  for  the  pur- 
pose, and  it  was  fondly  believed  that  she  was  a  match  for  any 
two  monitors  in  the  Union  navy.  The  Weehawken  and  the 
Nahant  were  sent  down  to  Warsaw  Sound,  below  Tybee  Island, 
to  watch  for  her.  Early  in  the  morning  of  the  17th  of  June 
the  Atlanta  was  seen  coming  down  the  channel  toward  the 
monitors,  followed  by  two  steamboats  crowded  with  spectators, 
many  of  whom  are  said  to  have  been  ladies.  The  monitors  at 
once  got  ready  for  action,  and  steamed  up  to  meet  her,  the 
Weehawken  leading.  When  within  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
of  the  latter,  the  Atlanta  fired,  but  her  shot  fell  short.  Cap- 
tain Rodgers,  of  the  Weehawken,  then  took  aim  himself  with 
his  fifteen-inch  gun,  and  struck  the  Atlanta  squarely,  breaking 
the  shutter  of  one  of  her  port  holes.     The  next  shot  from  the 


1863.]  CAPTURE  OF  THE  ATLANTA.  393 

monitor  carried  away  the  pilot-house  of  the  Atlanta,  and 
another  one  went  crash  against  her  side,  bending  in  her  iron 
plates  and  shivering  into  splinters  the  solid  wood-work  behind 
them.  One  man  was  killed  and  thirteen  wounded  by  the  force 
of  the  blow,  and  immediately  afterward  a  white  flag  was  seen 
waving  from  the  wreck  of  the  pilot-house.  The  two  steamboats 
which  had  come  down  to  see  the  fun  of  capturing  the  Yankees 
then  steamed  hastily  back  to  Savannah  to  tell  the  bad  news, 
and  Captain  Eodgers  sent  Commander  Harmony  with  a  boat's 
crew  on  board  of  the  Atlanta  to  take  possession  in  the  name  of 
the  United  States.  The  new  flag  *  of  the  Confederacy,  which  was 
flying  at  her  stern,  was  hauled  down,  and  the  flag  of  the  Union 
hoisted  in  its  place  amid  the  cheers  of  the  crews  of  the  moni- 
tors. Only  five  shots  had  been  fired  by  the  Weehawken  and  six 
by  the  Atlanta  in  the  battle,  which  had  lasted  but  fifteen  min- 
utes. Every  one  of  the  monitor's  shot  struck,  while  she  was 
not  hit  once.     The  Nahant  took  no  part  in  the  battle. 

The  Atlanta  was  aground  during  the  fight,  which  was  one 
reason  why  she  did  so  poorly.  The  Union  officers  did  not  know 
this,  and  when  Commander  Harmony  went  aboard  he  ordered 
his  men  to  cast  anchor.  But  Captain  William  A.  Webb,  the 
Confederate  commander,  exclaimed: 

"For  God's  sake,  Captain,  don't  cast  off  those  anchors! 
We  have  a  torpedo  under  the  bow!" 

Commander  Harmony  turned  toward  him  and  said,  with 
the  utmost  coolness: 

"I  don't  care  anything  about  your  torpedoes.  I  can  stand 
them  if  you  can;  but  if  you  don't  wish  to  be  blown  up  with  me, 
you'd  better  tell  me  how  to  raise  the  torpedo." 

Captain  Webb  called  some  of  his  men,  who  fastened  ropes 
and  pulleys  to  a  large  iron  rod  which  ran  out  from  the  bow, 
and  soon  a  huge  torpedo  Avas  seen  coming  up  out  of  the 
water  at  the  outer  end  of  the  rod,  which  was  about  thirty  feet 
long.  The  cap  was  carefully  removed  from  it,  and  water 
poured  in  to  wet  the  gunpowder,  and  the  whole  contrivance 
was  then  fastened  so  as  to  hang  above  the  water  in  front  of  the 

*  This  was  a  white  flag  with  the  battle  flag  in  the  upper  corner  for  a 
union.  It  was  adopted  May  1,  1863.  See  colored  plate,  page  563,  num- 
ber 3. 


394 


THE  MONITORS. 


[1863. 


bow.  If  the  Atlanta  had  not  run  aground,  she  might  have 
seriously  injured  the  Weehawken  with  this,  for  the  intention 
was  to  run  straight  at  the  monitor,  and  fire  the  torpedo  by 
electricity  as  soon  as  the  two  vessels  should  touch  each  other. 
The  torpedo  would  then  have  been  under  the  monitor,  and  its 
explosion  would  probably  have  sunk  her. 

The  Atlanta  looked  much  like  the  Merrimac,  but  she  was  a 
better  and  stronger  vessel.  She  was,  too,  faster  than  the  Mer- 
rimac, and  if  she  had  not  got  aground  in  the  mud  she  might 
easily  have  run  away  from  the  monitors.  She  was  fitted  with 
stores  and  ammunition  for  a  regular  cruise,  and  her  officers 
fully  expected  to  go  to  Charleston  with  her,  and  perhaps  fur- 
ther up  the  coast.  But 
instead  of  steaming  up 
as  an  enemy,  carrying 
destruction  to  the  block- 
ading fleets,  she  sailed 
under  the  flag  of  the 
Union  to  Philadelphia, 
where  she  was  exhibited 
for  the  benefit  of  the 
soldiers. 

Admiral  Dupont  was 
an  old-fashioned  sailor, 
who  believed  in  fighting 
his  ship  boldly  on  deck, 
instead  of  shut  up  in 
the  dark  caverns  of  a 
modern  iron-clad.  He  was  satisfied  with  his  experience  in  this 
kind  of  warfare,  and  was  unwilling  to  make  another  trial  of 
the  forts  and  batteries  of  Charleston.  The  government  there- 
fore ordered  Admiral  Foote,  who  had  shown  great  ability  in 
the  West  in  the  management  of  iron-clads,  to  take  his  place; 
but  he  died  in  New  York  while  on  his  way,  and  Admiral  John 
A.  Dahlgren  was  then  sent  to  take  command  of  the  fleet. 
Admiral  Dahlgren  was  the  inventor  of  the  Dahlgren  gun,  a 
cast-iron  cannon,  meant  chiefly  for  firing  shells,  and  used  much 
in  ships  and  sea-coast  forts. 

Gillmore's  plan  for  taking  Charleston  was  to  seize  the  south 
end  of  Morris  Island  (see  map,  page  57),  and  next,  with  the 


John  A.  Dahlgren. 


1863.]  ASSAULT  ON  WAGNER  395 

aid  of  the  monitors,  to  take  Fort  "Wagner  and  the  battery  on 
Cumming's  Point.  From  Cumming's  Point  he  could  then 
bombard  Fort  Sumter,  and  even  throw  shells  into  Charleston 
itself.  Folly  Island,  just  below  Morris  Island,  had  been  occu- 
pied by  Union  troops  since  the  beginning  of  April.  Hidden 
by  the  thick  trees  and  bushes,  which  covered  the  island,  strong 
earthworks  were  thrown  up  and  heavy  guns  mounted,  unknown 
to  the  Confederates.  At  daylight  of  July  10th  the  monitors 
moved  in  and  opened  fire  on  Fort  Wagner.  At  the  same  time 
the  trees  in  front  of  the  batteries  on  Folly  Island  were  cut 
away,  and  the  defenders  of  the  fort  were  surprised  at  receiving 
a  heavy  fire  from  the  land  side.  Troops  were  landed,  and  soon 
all  the  Confederate  works  on  the  south  side  of  Morris  Island 
were  in  Gillmore's  hands.  The  day  was  very  hot  and  the  men 
much  exhausted,  and  the  attack  on  Wagner  was  postponed 
until  the  next  morning;  but  the  bombardment  was  kept  up. 
The  next  morning  an  assault  was  made  on  Wagner,  but  it 
was  a  failure. 

New  batteries  were  then  built  on  Morris  Island,  nearer  to 
Fort  Wagner  than  those  on  Folly  Island,  and  they  and  the 
monitors  kept  up  a  steady  fire.  On  the  18th  of  July  another 
assault  was  made  by  about  six  thousand  men,  under  General 
Truman  Seymour.  The  men  rushed  to  the  attack  just  at  twi- 
light, at  the  close  of  a  heavy  thunder-storm.  In  the  front  was 
a  regiment  of  colored  troops,  the  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts, 
under  Colonel  Eobert  G.  Shaw.  They  were  received  by  a  fire 
of  shot  and  shell  from  Sumter  and  Wagner,  and  from  Battery 
Gregg  on  Cumming's  Point,  but  few  were  hit  until  they  had 
nearly  reached  the  ditch  of  the  fort.  Then  the  whole  front  of 
Wagner  blazed  with  the  fire  of  muskets  and  of  howitzers,  and 
showers  of  hand-grenades  burst  among  the  struggling  mass  of 
men.  Across  the  ditch,  in  which  there  was  three  feet  of  water, 
rushed  many  of  the  Union  men,  and  some  even  clambered  up 
on  the  parapet  of  the  fort;  but  they  were  hurled  down  again, 
and  finally,  after  a  struggle  of  half  an  hour,  the  assailants  fell 
back,  leaving  their  dead  and  wounded  in  the  hands  of  the  Con- 
federates. The  Confederates  did  not  lose  more  than  a  hundred 
men,  while  the  Union  loss  was  more  than  fifteen  hundred. 
But  few  of  the  colored  troops  were  left,  their  leader  having 
fallen  with  them. 


896  the  monitors.  [\m. 

Gillmore  then  laid  regular  siege  to  Wagner.  Trenches  were 
dug,  and  by  the  middle  of  August  the  batteries  were  within  a 
quarter-mile  of  Wagner  and  within  two  and  a  half  miles  of 
Sumter.  The  work  on  these  batteries  had  to  be  done  mostly 
by  night,  for  the  forts  kept  up  a  heavy  fire.  Another  battery 
was  also  begun  in  the  marsh  on  the  west  side  of  Morris  Island. 
The  black  mud  there  was  so  soft  that  it  would  not  bear  the 
weight  of  a  man,  and  was  at  least  sixteen  feet  deep.  After  the 
site  was  chosen,  a  lieutenant  was  ordered  to  superintend  the 
work,  and  told  to  call  for  whatever  materials  he  wanted. 
Being  something  of  a  wag,  he  sent  to  the  quartermaster  for  a 
hundred  men  eighteen  feet  high,  to  work  in  mud  sixteen  feet 
deep;  but  as  men  of  that  height  could  not  be  had,  he  had  to  be 


Swamp  Angel. 

satisfied  with  workmen  of  common  stature.  All  the  work  had 
to  be  done  in  the  dark,  for  it  was  within  range  of  the  guns  of 
the  forts.  During  fourteen  nights  piles  were  driven  through 
the  mud  into  the  solid  ground  beneath,  and  on  them  were 
piled  fifteen  thousand  bags  of  sand  to  form  a  parapet.  After 
breaking  down  several  trucks,  a  monster  eight-inch  Parrott 
gun,  a  200-pounder,  was  dragged  across  the  swamp  and 
mounted,  and  about  the  middle  of  August  the  Swamp  Angel, 
as  the  soldiers  named  it,  was  ready  to  throw  shells  into  Charles- 
ton, nearly  five  miles  away. 

On  the  17th  of  August  twelve  land-batteries  and  the  moni- 
tors opened  fire  on  Sumter,  Wagner,  and  Gregg.  The  heaviest 
of  the  fire  was  aimed  at  Sumter,  as  General  Gillmore  wished  to 


1863.]      "  SUMTER  ASSAULTED.  397 

silence  it  before  he  made  another  assault  on  Wagner.  The  bom- 
bardment was  kept  up  for  seven  days,  when  Gillmore  sent  a 
dispatch  to  General  Halleck,  saying:  "Fort  Sumter  is  to-day 
(Aug.  M)  a  shapeless  and  harmless  mass  of  ruins." 

On  the  21st  of  August,  General  Gillmore  wrote  to  General 
Beauregard,  who  was  in  command  in  Charleston,  demanding 
the  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter  and  of  Morris  Island,  threaten- 
ing, in  case  of  refusal,  to  bombard  Charleston.  Not  hearing 
from  him,  he  ordered  a  few  shells  to  be  thrown  into  the  city 
from  the  Swamp  Angel.  Some  of  them  fell  in  the  streets  and 
frightened  the  people,  but  did  little  damage.  Beauregard  then 
wrote  him  a  letter  in  which  he  accused  him  of  barbarity  in 
"turning  his  guns  against  the  old  men,  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, and  the  hospitals  of  a  sleeping  city,"  and  called  the  act 
"unworthy  of  any  soldier."  General  Gillmore  replied  that  it 
was  the  duty  of  the  commander  of  an  attacked  place  to  "see  to 
it  that  the  non-combatants  were  removed,"  and  that  he  (Beau- 
regard) had  had  forty  clays'  time  in  which  to  do  it.  But  the 
Swamp  Angel  was  fired  only  a  few  times.  At  the  thirty-sixth 
shot  it  burst  and  blew  out  the  whole  of  its  breech,  and  no  other 
gun  was  mounted  in  its  place. 

Gillmore  then  turned  his  attention  once  more  to  Fort  Wag- 
ner, which  he  determined  to  assault  again.  To  do  this  it  was 
necessary  to  silence  its  guns  and  drive  its  defenders  into  the 
bomb-proofs;  so  a  heavy  fire  was  opened  on  it  by  the  batteries, 
while  the  armored  frigate  New  Ironsides  poured  eleven-inch 
shells  into  it  from  the  sea  side.  The  bombardment  was  kept 
up  day  and  night,  strong  calcium  lights  being  used  by  night  to 
blind  the  Confederates  and  to  show  all  parts  of  their  works. 
The  Confederates,  driven  from  their  guns,  were  obliged  to  fly 
for  safety  to  their  bomb-proofs.  In  the  morning  of  September 
7,  the  troops,  under  General  Terry,  were  about  ready  to  make 
the  assault,  when  it  was  reported  that  the  fort  was  empty.  The 
garrisons  of  both  Wagner  and  Gregg  had  fled  during  the  night, 
and  the  whole  of  Morris  Island  was  at  last  in  possession  of  the 
Union  troops.  The  next  night  an  attack  was  made  on  Sumter 
by  thirty  boat-loads  of  men  from  the  fleet.  They  reached  the 
base  of  the  walls  and  began  to  go  up,  thinking  that  the  garrison 
was  asleep;  but  before  they  reached  the  top  a  fire  of  musketry 
and  hand-grenades  was  opened  on  them  by  the  Confederates 


398  THE  MONITORS.  [1863; 

within,  aided  by  some  gunboats  outside,  and  the  assailants  were 
driven  off  with  a  loss  of  about  two  hundred. 

But  little  more  was  done  against  Charleston  during  the  rest 
of  the  year.  General  Gillmore  thought  that,  as  Sumter's  guns 
were  silenced,  the  fleet  might  easily  pass  into  the  harbor  and 
capture  Charleston.  But  Admiral  Dahlgren  did  not  care  to 
run  the  risk  of  the  torpedoes  and  powder-mines  over  which  he 
knew  he  would  have  to  pass.  Besides,  General  Beauregard  had 
taken  advantage  of  the  long  delay  in  taking  "Wagner  to  strength- 
en the  inner  forts.  Fort  Johnson  had  been  made  into  a  pow- 
erful earthwork,  and  the  fleet,  even  if  Sumter  were  passed, 
would  meet  with  as  hot  afire  as  had  been  experienced  outside. 
General  Gillmore  therefore  contented  himself  with  repairing 
Wagner  and  Gregg  and  turning  their  guns  on  Charleston  and 
the  forts  defending  it.  As  they  were  a  mile  nearer  the  city 
than  the  Swamp  Angel  battery,  a  slow  bombardment  was  kept 
up  until  near  the  end  of  the  year.  About  half  of  Charleston 
was  reached  by  the  shells,  and  many  buildings  were  greatly 
injured.  As  the  wharves  and  most  of  the  harbor  were  under 
fire,  blockade-runners  could  no  longer  run  in,  and  the  business 
of  the  city  was  thus  wholly  destroyed. 

In  December  the  Weehawken  was  unfortunately  lost  in  a 
gale  while  lying  at  anchor  off  Morris  Island.  Her  hatches  being 
carelessly  left  open,  the  waves  swept  over  her  and  filled  her 
with  water,  and  she  went  suddenly  to  the  bottom,  carrying 
down  thirty  of  her  crew. 

But  little  was  done  in  North  Carolina  during  1863,  the 
Union  troops  contenting  themselves  with  holding  the  places 
along  the  coast  which  they  had  won.  In  March  the  Confeder- 
ate General  D.  H.  Hill  tried  to  retake  New  Berne,  but  was 
driven  off.  He  then  attacked  Little  Washington,  on  the  Pam- 
lico Biver.  General  Foster  hastened  thither  from  New  Berne. 
Hill,  who  had  a  large  force,  nearly  surrounded  the  place  and 
began  a  regular  siege,  and  soon  the  garrison  got  out  of  supplies, 
excepting  what  could  be  brought  to  the  town  in  small  boats 
during  the  night.  At  last  the  steamboat  Escort  ran  the  block- 
ade of  the  batteries  by  night  with  a  supply  of  provisions  and 
ammunition.  General  Foster  returned  to  New  Berne  in  her  at 
great  risk,  for  she  was  struck  by  forty-seven  cannon-shot  as  she 
went  down  the  river,  and  putting  himself  at  the  head  of  seven 


1863.]  I'SE  JUST  SAM.  399 

thousand  men,  marched  back  to  raise  the  siege.  But  Hill  did 
not  wait  for  him,  and  Foster  found  the  Confederates  in  full 
retreat. 

A  few  raids  were  made  inland  during  the  rest  of  the  year, 
chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  railways,  mills,  machine 
shops,  cotton,  and  whatever  might  aid  the  enemy  in  a  military 
way.  Many  negroes  followed  the  raiding  parties  hack  to  the 
coast,  some  bringing  along  their  wives  and  little  ones  and  all 
their  household  goods,  as  if  intending  to  leave  their  old  homes 
forever.  They  were  received  kindly  and  generally  set  at  work  to 
build  earthworks  or  to  raise  food  for  the  soldiers,  but  some  of 
the  able-bodied  ones  were  formed  into  companies  and  drilled  as 
soldiers.  On  arriving  within  the  Union  lines  the  contrabands 
were  generally  sent  to  headquarters,  and  funny  scenes  often 
took  place  when  they  were  questioned  by  the  officer  in  charge. 
One  day  a  bright-looking  negro  came  to  report. 

"What's  your  name?"  asked  the  officer. 

"  Sam." 

"Sam  what?" 

"No,  sar,  not  Sam  Watt.     I'se  just  Sam." 

"What's  your  other  name?" 

"Hasn't  got  no  oder  name,  sar.     I'se  Sam,  dat's  all." 

"  What's  your  master's  name?" 

"Got  none;  massa  runned  away.  Yah!  yah!  free  nigger 
now."  And  Sam's  mouth  stretched  from  ear  to  ear,  as  if  he 
enjoyed  the  situation. 

"Well,  what's  your  father's  or  your  mother's  name?"  per- 
sisted the  officer. 

"  Got  none,  sar.  Nebber  had  none.  I'se  just  Sam.  Aint 
nobody  else." 

"Haven't  you  any  brothers  or  sisters?" 

"No,  sar,  nebber  had  none:  no  brudder,  no  sister,  no  fader, 
no  mudder,  no  massa — nothin'  but  Sam.  When  you  see  Sam, 
you  see  all  dere  is  of  us." 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 
PRIVATEERS.— MOBILE  BAT. 

Expedition  to  Florida.— Battle  of  Olustee.— Loss  of  Plymouth.— Raid  of  the  Albe 
makle.— Her  Destruction  bt  Cushing.— The  Confederate  Privateers.— The  Ala- 
bama.—Captain  Semmes.— The  Fight  with  the  Kearsarge.— Rescue  of  Semmes.— The 
Florida  and  the  Wachusett.— The  Shenandoah.— Whalers  Burned.— The  Last  Hos- 
tile Act.— Rams  for  the  Emperor  of  China.— The  Stonewall.— The  Alabama  Claims. 
— Mobile  Bay.— Farragut  Passes  the  Forts.— The  Admiral  in  the  Shrouds.— Sinking 
of  the  Teccmseh.— Torpedoes.— Four  Bells.— The  Ram  is  Coming.— Fight  with  the 
Tennessee.— Ramming  the  Ram.— Save  the  Admiral.— Surrender  of  the  Forts. 

Q'ENERAL  GILLMORE,  finding  it  impossible  to  do  much 
more  at  Charleston  without  a  larger  force,  determined  to 
send  an  expedition  to  Florida.  Early  in  February,  1864,  a 
fleet  of  twenty  steamers  and  eight  schooners  sailed  from  Port 
Royal,  went  up  the  St.  John's  River  and  occupied  Jacksonville. 
From  there  the  troops,  about  six  thousand  in  number,  marched 
westward  on  the  railroad  to  Baldwin,  when  General  Gillmore 
returned  to  Port  Royal,  leaving  General  Truman  Seymour  in 
command.  On  the  20th  of  February,  Seymour  had  advanced  to 
Olustee,  where  he  fell  into  an  ambuscade  set  for  him  by  the 
Confederate  General  Finnegan,  and  was  badly  defeated  with  a 
loss  of  five  guns  and  about  fifteen  hundred  men,  while  that  of 
the  enemy  was  only  about  half  as  many.  Seymour  fell  back  to 
Jacksonville,  burning  large  quantities  of  stores  to  keep  them 
from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  and  this  ended  the 
Florida  expedition. 

In  April,  1864,  the  Union  General  Henry  W.  Wessells  was 
attacked  in  Plymouth,  on  the  Roanoke  River,  North  Carolina, 
by  the  Confederate  General  R.  F.  Hoke,  with  about  seven  thou- 
sand men.  The  place  was  well  fortified  and  defended  by 
twenty-four  hundred  men  and  three  gunboats.  Hoke  first 
attacked  Fort  Warren,  a  small  earthwork  a  little  way  up  the 
river.  He  was  aided  in  this  by  an  iron-clad  ram,  named  the 
Albemarle,  which  the  Confederates  had  built  up  the  Roanoke. 
The  gunboat  Bombshell  went  up  to  help  the  garrison,  but  the 
ram  disabled  and  captured  her.  The  Confederates  next  took 
Fort  Wessells,  a  mile  further  down  the  river,  and  then  laid 
siege  to  Plymouth.     The  Albemarle  ran  by  Fort  Warren,  sunk 


1864.] 


RAID  OF  TEE  ALBEMARLE. 


401 


the  Union  gunboat  Southfield  and  drove  away  the  gunboat 
Miami,  after  killing  her  commander  and  wounding  many  of 
her  crew.  The  ram  then  shelled  the  town,  and  the  next  day 
the  Confederates  assaulted  it  and  the  forts  in  such  force  that 
General  Wessells  was  forced  to  surrender.  Hoke  took  sixteen 
hundred  prisoners,  twenty-five  cannons,  and  many  valuable 
stores.  The  fall  of  Plymouth  caused  the  evacuation  of  Little 
Washington  by  the  Union  troops,  and  Hoke  then  laid  siege  to 
New  Berne. 

In  May  the  Albemarle,  accompanied  by  the  captured  Bomb- 
shell and  the  steamboat  Cotton  Plant  filled  with  sharpshooters, 
went  down  from  Plymouth  and  attacked  the  Union  gunboats 
doing  blockade  duty  off 
the  mouth  of  the  Roanoke 
River.  The  Cotton  Plant 
soon  went  back,  and  the 
Bombshell,  after  receiv- 
ing a  broadside  from  the 
Sassacus,  hauled  down 
her  flag.  The  Albemarle 
was  hit  many  times,  but 
the  shot  glanced  from  her 
sides  as  those  of  the  Mon- 
itor had  from  the  iron 
plates  of  the  Merrimac. 
The  Sassacus  finally  ram- 
med her,  striking  her  so 
heavy  a  blow  as  to  nearly 
force  her  under  water.  At  length  the  Albemarle  put  a  shot 
through  one  of  the  boilers  of  the  Sassacus,  killing  three  men 
and  wounding  six.  In  a  minute  the  vessel  was  filled  with 
scalding  steam,  and  the  Sassacus  became  unmanageable.  The 
Albemarle  then  retreated  slowly  to  Plymouth,  firing  as  she 
went,  leaving  the  Bombshell  in  the  hands  of  the  Unionists. 
Hoke  had  expected  the  iron-clad  to  help  him  to  capture  New 
Berne,  but  she  did  not  appear  again,  and  he  soon  had  to  give  up 
the  siege  and  go  to  Virginia  to  aid  in  the  defence  of  Petersburg. 

After  this  but  little  was  done  in  North  Carolina  for  several 
months;  but  the  Albemarle  still  lay  at  Plymouth,  and  there  was 
danger  of  her  making  another  attack  on  the  Union  fleet.     She 


William  B.  Cushing. 


402  PRIVATEERS.— MOBILE  BAY.  [1864 

was  finally  destroyed  by  a  brave  young  lieutenant,  William  B. 
Cushing,  who  blew  her  up  with  a  torpedo.  Though  only 
twenty  years  old,  he  was  one  of  the  most  daring  officers  in  the 
navy,  and  he  had  become  noted  for  his  fearlessness  in  the  expe- 
ditions in  the  sounds  and  rivers  of  North  Carolina.  One  dark 
night  (Oct.  27)  he  set  out  from  the  fleet  in  a  steam  launch — a 
long  open  boat  used  by  naval  vessels — with  a  crew  of  thirteen 
officers  and  men.  The  launch  was  fitted  with  a  toi^edo,  which 
could  be  run  out  forward  on  the  end  of  a  long  boom  so  as  to  be 
thrust  under  the  vessel  to  be  attacked.  Cush- 
ing got  within  sixty  feet  of  the  Albemarle 
before  his  boat  was  seen.  The  guards  then 
shouted  the  alarm,  rang  the  boat's  bell,  and 
began  firing  their  muskets  at  the  launch. 

Fire-Ball.  There    w&g   &    ^    Q±  ]ogg    ^^   ^  ^^ 

around  the  Albemarle  to  protect  her  from  just  such  attacks, 
but  Cushing  ran  the  bow  of  the  launch  upon  the  logs,  lowered 
the  boom  so  that  the  torpedo  came  right  under  the  side  of  the 
vessel,  and  fired  it.  At  the  same  moment  a  shot  from  one  of 
the  great  guns  of  the  ram  crashed  through  the  launch,  and  it 
was  overwhelmed  by  a  flood  of  water  thrown  up  by  the  explo- 
sion of  the  torpedo.  The  Confederates  called  out  to  Cushing 
to  surrender,  but  he  refused,  and  ordering  his  men  to  save 
themselves  as  they  best  could,  he  sprang  into  the  water  amid  a 
shower  of  musket  balls  and  swam  down  the  river.  He  succeeded 
in  reaching  the  shore,  almost  exhausted,  and  hid  himself  dur- 
ing the  next  day  in  a  swamp,  where  he  was  cared  for  by  some 
negroes.  From  them  he  heard  that  the  Albemarle  had  been 
sunk  by  his  torpedo.  The  next  night  he  found  a  small  boat  in 
a  creek,  paddled  in  it  down  the  river,  and  before 
midnight  was  safe  on  board  one  of  the  vessels  of 
the  fleet.  Only  one  other  man  of  the  party  es- 
caped, all  the  rest  being  either  drowned  or  cap-  REEK"  IRE  Shell- 
tured.  The  Albemarle  being  thus  put  out  of  the  way,  Ply- 
mouth was  recaptured  a  few  days  afterward. 

We  must  now  go  upon  the  high  seas  and  watch  the  doings 
of  the  Confederate  privateers.  Some  of  the  earlier  of  these  are 
told  about  in  Chapter  XI. ;  but  the  Confederates,  with  the  aid 
of  British  ship-builders,  soon  sent  out  four  more  powerful  vessels 
which  drove  American  commerce  from  the  ocean.     These  ships 


1864.] 


THE  ALABAMA. 


403 


were  furnished  with  the  best  cannons  known,  as  well  as  with 
shells  filled  with  Greek-fire — a  substance  very  hard  to  extin- 
guish when  burning — others  for  firing  melted  metal,  and  fire- 
balls for  burning  vessels.  The  most  famous  of  the  privateers 
was  the  Alabama,  which  captured  sixty-five  vessels  and  destroyed 
property  valued  at  ten  million  dollars.  She  was  built  at  Liver- 
pool by  Mr.  Laird,  who  was  then  a  member  of  Parliament,  and, 
notwithstanding  the  protest  of  the  American  Minister,  was 
allowed  to  go  to  sea  (July,  1862),  with  a  British  crew  on  board 
and  in  charge  of  a  British  captain.  She  sailed  to  the  Azores 
Islands  under  the  name  of  "The  290."  Another  British  ship 
followed  her  with  her  armament  and  supplies,  and  still  another 
brought  to  her  Raphael  Semmes,  the  former  captain  of  the 
Sumter  (page  143).  As  soon 
as  her  guns  and  stores  were 
put  aboard  she  went  to  sea, 
and  Semmes  appeared  on  her 
deck  in  full  uniform  as  her 
captain,  and  she  was  renamed 
the  Confederate  steamer  Ala- 
bama. 

The  Alabama,  after  a  long 
cruise  in  the  South  Atlantic 
and  Indian  Oceans,  during 
which  she  captured  and 
burned  many  American  ships, 
returned  to  Europe  in  the 
summer  of  1864,  and  went 
into  the  French  port  of  Cherbourg.  Shortly  afterward  the 
United  States  steamer  Kearsarge,  Captain  John  A.  Winslow, 
found  her  there,  and  lay  off  the  port  watching  for  her  to 
come  out.  Captain  Semmes  sent  a  note  to  Captain  Winslow, 
asking  him  not  to  go  away,  as  he  meant  to  fight  the  Kearsarge, 
and  would  delay  him  but  a  day  or  two.  This  was  unnecessary, 
as  Captain  Winslow  had  been  watching  for  some  time  for  such 
an  opportunity.  On  Sunday  morning,  June  19,  the  Alabama 
came  out  of  Cherbourg  and  steered  toward  the  Kearsarge. 
Captain  Winslow  steamed  out  to  sea  so  as  to  draw  the  Alabama 
out  of  French  waters;  for  every  country  owns  the  sea  to  a  dis- 
tance of  three  miles  from  its  shores,  and  if  a  fight  should  take 


Raphael  Semmes. 


404 


PBIVATEEBS.— MOBILE  BAY. 


[1864. 


place  within  that  space  the  parties  to  it  would  be  liable  to  be 
judged  by  the  laws  of  France.  When  the  Kearsarge  was  about 
seven  miles  off  the  coast  she  turned  and  steamed  for  the  Ala- 
bama. When  within  about  a  mile  the  Alabama  began  to  fire, 
and  the  Kearsarge  received  two  or  three  broadsides  before  a 
shot  was  returned.  The  two  steamers  sailed  round  and  round 
each  other,  about  three  fourths  of  a  mile  apart,  firing  at  each 
other  as  they  went.  The  Alabama's  shots  did  not  do  much 
harm,  although  twelve  or  thirteen  struck  the  hull  of  the  Kear- 
sarge; but  the  guns  of  the  Kear.-arge  were  aimed  very  carefully, 
and  at  the  end  of  an  hour  the  Alabama  pulled  down  her  flag, 

and  she  was  seen  to  be 
in  a  sinking  condition. 
Twenty  minutes  after- 
ward her  stern  settled  in 
the  water  while  her  bow 
rose  high  in  the  air,  and 
the  Alabama  went  to  the 
bottom  of  the  English 
Channel,  leaving  her  offi- 
cers and  crew  struggling 
in  the  water. 

An  English  steam- 
yacht,  named  the  Deer- 
hound,  which  had  come 
out  of  Cherbourg  with 
the  Alabama,  assisted,  by 
request  of  Captain  Winslow,  the  boats  of  the  Kearsarge  in  pick- 
ing up  the  survivors;  but  instead  of  delivering  them  up  as 
prisoners  she  steamed  away  to  the  English  coast  and  landed 
them  there.  Among  those  thus  rescued  was  Captain  Semmes 
and  about  forty  of  his  officers  and  men.  The  Alabama  and  the 
Kearsarge  were  of  nearly  the  same  size  and  armament,  and 
carried  nearly  the  same  number  of  guns.  Some  of  the  Confed- 
erate writers  have  tried  to  prove  that  the  Kearsarge  was  partly 
iron-clad,  and  say  that  this  gave  her  an  advantage  over  the  Ala- 
bama; but  her  only  armor  was  her  chain-cables  which  had  been 
hung  up  and  down  on  her  sides  to  protect  her  engines  from 
shot,  a  thing  often  done  during  the  war.     If  Captain  Semmes 


John  A.   Winslow. 


1864.] 


THE  FLORIDA. 


405 


had  protected  his  ship  in  the  same  way,  he  might  have  come 
off  better  in  the  fight. 

Another  British  vessel  built  for  the  Confederates  was  the 
Oreto,  afterward  named  the  Florida.  She  was  allowed  to  go  to 
sea  in  spite  of  the  protest  of  the  American  Minister,  sailed  to 
Nassau  and  then  ran  into  Mobile,  under  the  British  flag.  In 
December,  1862,  she  ran  out,  completely  armed  as  a  privateer, 
under  the  command  of  Captain  John  N.  Maffitt,  son  of  the 
famous  Irish  Methodist  revival  preacher.  Like  Semmes,  Maf- 
fitt had  formerly  been  in  the  naval  service  of  the  United  States. 
After  cruising  along  the  Atlantic  coast  and  among  the  West 
India  islands,  capturing  and  burning  ships,  the  Florida  at  last 
went  down  the  coast  of  Brazil  and  ran  into  the  port  of  Bahia. 


The  Alabama. 


The  United  States  steamer  Wachusett,  Commander  Napoleon 
Collins,  was  then  lying  there.  Of  course  Commander  Collins 
had  no  legal  right  to  touch  the  Florida  while  she  lay  in  port, 
but  he  made  up  his  mind  to  take  her  at  any  risk.  He  tried  to 
get  her  outside  to  fight  his  ship,  as  the  Alabama  had  gone  out 
to  fight  the  Kearsarge,  and  failing  in  that,  ran  into  her  one  day 
(Oct.  7,  18G4)  under  full  steam,  with  the  intention  of  sinking 
her  where  she  lay.  As  this  only  damaged  her  a  little,  he  de- 
manded her  surrender,  and  the  officer  in  charge,  most  of  her 
crew  being  ashore,  was  obliged  to  give  her  up.  Commander 
Collins  then  sent  some  men  aboard  of  her,  lashed  her  to  the 
Wachusett,  steamed  out  of  the  harbor  before  the  Brazilian 
men-of-war  knew  what  he  was  about,  and  took  her  to  Hampton 


406  PRIVATEERS.— MOBILE  BAY.  [1864. 

Eoads.  This  act  created  great  excitement,  and  the  Brazilian 
government  complained  of  it  to  the  United  States.  The  govern- 
ment at  Washington  owned  that  the  act  was  an  unlawful  one 
and  apologized  for  it,  and  Commander  Collins  was  susj>ended 
from  duty  for  a  time.  The  Florida  was  soon  after  sunk  in 
Hampton  Roads  by  being  run  into  by  another  vessel. 

Other  Confederate  cruisers  built  in  British  ship-yards  were 
the  Georgia,  the  Tallahassee,  the  Olustee,  the  Chickamauga, 
and  the  Shenandoah.  These  captured  many  ships  and  drove 
American  commerce  from  the  seas;  for  great  numbers  of  vessels 
not  taken  by  them  had  to  be  sold  by  their  owners  at  cheap 
rates  and  put  under  foreign  flags  to  save  them.  The  Shenan- 
doah was  the  last  of  the  privateers  on  the  ocean.  After  cruis- 
ing in  Australian  waters  and  the  Indian  Ocean,  taking  and 
destroying  many  American  ships  there,  she  went  to  Behring 
Strait,  to  look  after  the  New  England  whale-ships  "which  go 
there  every  season.  On  the  28th  of  June,  1865,  she  took  and 
burned  eight  of  these  vessels.  This  is  said  to  have  been  the  last 
hostile  act  of  the  war.  In  the  following  August  her  captain, 
hearing  that  the  war  was  at  an  end,  steered  for  England  and 
gave  up  his  vessel  to  the  British  authorities. 

The  Confederates  tried  hard  also  to  get  some  iron-clad  vessels 
from  Europe.  Laird,  the  builder  of  the  Alabama,  constructed 
for  them  two  powerful  iron-clad  rams,  which  were  said  to  be  for 
the  Emperor  of  China.  They  were  ready  for  sailing  in  the 
autumn  of  1863,  when  Mr.  Adams,  the  American  Minister,  in- 
formed the  British  government  that  their  sailing  on  a  hostile 
errand  against  the  United  States  would  be  cause  for  war,  and 
they  were  stopped.  Another  iron-clad,  called  the  Stonewall, 
was  built  in  France  for  the  Danish  government,  it  was  said,  but 
she  was  sold  to  the  Confederates.  She  was  at  last  surrendered 
to  the  Spanish  authorities  in  Havana,  who  gave  her  up  to  the 
United  States. 

The  British  government  had  to  pay  dearly  in  the  end  for 
its  conduct  in  permitting  the  Confederate  cruisers  to  fit  out  in 
its  ports  to  war  on  the  commerce  of  a  friendly  power.  After 
the  war  the  United  States  claimed  that  they  ought  to  receive 
payment  for  the  damage  done.  The  question  was  left  to  arbi- 
tration— that  is,  was  left  to  be  settled  by  a  court  of  persons 
called  ai'bitrators,  one  each  being  chosen  by  the  United  States 


1864] 


FORT  MORGAN. 


407 


and  Great  Britain,  and  three  others  by  the  governments  of  Italy, 
Switzerland,  and  Brazil.  This  court  decided  that  Great  Britain 
had  done  wrong,  and  she  was  condemned  to  pay  the  United 
States  fifteen  million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  ($15,500,- 
000).  The  claims  thus  paid  are  commonly  called,  from  the 
name  of  the  ship  which  did  the  most  harm,  the  Alabama  Claims. 
The  only  ports  open  to  the  Confederates  in  the  summer  of 
1864  were  Mobile  and  Wilmington,  and  it  was  determined  to 
make  an  effort  to  capture  or  close  them,  so  as  to  keep  blockade- 
runners  from  carrying  in  any  more  supplies.  The  city  of 
Mobile,   the    only 

seaport  of  Alaba-  JS^Jf         / 

ma,  lies  at  the 
head  of  Mobile 
Bay,  about  thirty 
miles  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico. 
The  entrance  to 
the  bay  is  narrowed 
by  a  long  strip  of 
sand  extending 
from  the  east  side 
of  the  mainland, 
on  the  end  of 
which,  called  Mo- 
bile Point,  is  Fort 
Morgan,  as  shown  in  the  map.  Near  the  middle  of  the  en- 
trance is  Dauphin  Island,  with  Fort  Gaines  on  the  eastern  end, 
opposite  Fort  Morgan.  Between  these  two  forts,  which  are 
about  four  miles  apart,  is  the  main  ship-channel.  Another 
channel,  called  Grant's  Pass,  a  narrow  passage  between  two 
little  islands,  and  deep  enough  for  only  small  vessels,  was 
defended  by  an  earthwork  named  Fort  Powell.  The  strongest 
of  the  forts  was  Fort  Morgan,  near  which  the  main  channel 
runs.  It  was  mounted  with  very  powerful  English  guns,  and  in 
front  of  it,  at  the  edge  of  the  water,  was  a  battery  of  heavy 
guns.  The  channel  had  been  narrowed  by  piles  driven  in  the 
bottom,  so  as  to  make  all  vessels  passing  into  the  harbor  go 
close  to  Fort  Morgan,  and  many  torpedoes  had  been  planted  in 
it.     Fort  Gaines  was  a  smaller  work  than  Morgan,  and  too  far 


Entrance  to  Mobile  Bay. 


408  PRIVATEERS.— MOBILE  SAT.  [1864 

from  the  channel  to  do  much  damage.  Inside  the  bay  lay  the 
iron-clad  ram  Tennessee  and  three  gunboats,  under  command 
of  Admiral  Buchanan,  the  commander  of  the  Merrimac  in  the 
fight  with  the  Monitor. 

In  August,  1864,  the  Union  fleet,  under  Admiral  Farragut, 
consisting  of  fourteen  wooden  vessels  and  four  iron-clads,  lay 
off  the  entrance  of  the  bay,  three  or  four  miles  from  the  forts. 
The  Union  army,  of  only  five  thousand  men,  under  General 
Gordon  Granger,  had  been  landed  on  Dauphin  Island  and  had 
begun  works  to  lay  siege  to  Fort  Gaines.  The  position  of 
Farragut's  fleet  before  starting  to  attack  the  forts  is  shown  in 
the  map.  The  wooden  vessels  were  lashed  together  in  pairs, 
side  by  side,  with  strong  cables,  in  the  following  order,  the  first 
named  one  being  in  each  case  the  ship  on  the  starboard  or  right 
side,  the  side  next  to  Fort  Morgan  in  sailing  into  the  bay:  the 
Brooklyn  and  the  Octorara;  Hartford  and  Metacomet;  Bich- 
mond  and  Port  Bo}ral;  Lackawanna  and  Seminole;  Monon- 
gahela  and  Kennebec;  Ossipee  and  Itasca;  Oneida  and 
Galena.  The  Hartford  was  the  flag-ship,  or  ship  which  car- 
ried the  Admiral.  Farragut  Avas  anxious  to  take  the  lead 
himself  with  the  Hartford,  but  at  the  council  of  officers  it  was 
decided  that  the  Brooklyn,  which  was  provided  with  a  machine 
for  picking  up  torpedoes,  should  go  ahead.  The  iron-clads, 
which  were  ranged  in  a  line  by  themselves,  were  the  Tecumseh 
and  Manhattan,  each  a  monitor  with  one  turret,  and  the  Win- 
nebago and  Chickasaw,  each  with  two  turrets. 

Admiral  Farragut  had  determined  to  make  the  attempt  on 
the  forts  on  Thursday  (Aug.  4),  but  he  was  delayed  because 
the  Tecumseh  did  not  arrive.  She  came  from  Pensacola  about 
sunset  of  that  day,  and  orders  were  given  for  the  fleet  to  move 
at  dawn  the  next  morning,  notwithstanding  the  sailors'  belief 
that  Friday  is  an  unlucky  day  to  begin  anything.  The  morn- 
ing oj)ened  with  a  dense  fog  which  hid  land  and  forts  from 
view,  and  made  the  great  ships  look  like  phantoms;  but 
about  sunrise  the  mist  was  scattered  by  a  light  breeze  and  the 
day  became  clear  and  beautiful.  At  about  a  quarter  before  six 
o'clock  the  whole  fleet  was  underway,  the  monitors,  which  were 
slower  than  the  wooden  ships,  having  started  in  advance.  The 
Brooklyn  and  her  companion  came  next  and  the  others  fol- 
lowed in  their  order.     Every  ship  had   been  made  ready  for 


1864.] 


FARRAGUT  IN  THE)  SHROUDS. 


409 


action,  the  crews  stood  beside  their  guns,  and  the  officers  were 
watching  anxiously  for  the  sound  of  the  first  shot.  On  steamed 
the  fleet,  getting  nearer  and  nearer  every  moment  to  the  forts, 
when  presently  the  monitor  Tecumseh  opened  on  Fort  Morgan. 
The  fort  soon  replied,  and  one  after  another  the  ships  of  the 
fleet  answered  until  the  battle  became  general.  The  Brooklyn 
fired  grape  and  canister  shot,*  which  drove  many  of  the  men 
from  the  guns  in  the  water  battery  before  Fort  Morgan,  but  the 
great  guns  of  the  fort  itself  began  to  make  sad  havoc  among 
the  ships.  The  Hartford,  at  which  the  Confederates  chiefly 
aimed,  was  struck  many  times  and  her  decks  were  soon  slippery 
with  blood.  Admiral  Farragut  had  taken  his  position  in  the 
shrouds — that  is,  on  the  rope  lad- 
ders reaching  from  the  sides  of 
the  ship  to  the  tops  of  the  masts — 
near  the  main-top,  where  he  was 
high  enough  to  see  over  the  smoke 
of  the  guns.  Captain  Drayton, 
the  commander  of  the  Hartford, 
seeing  him  in  this  exposed  place 
and  fearing  lest  his  body  might 
fall  into  the  water  or  on  to  the 

deck,  if  he  should  happen  to  be  wounded,  ordered  a  sailor 
take  a  rope's  end  and  tie  him  to  the  shroud. 

The  Admiral  was  not  the  only  one  in  the  rigging  of  the  ship: 
above  him,  in  the  main-top, f  was  the  pilot,  in  the  foretop  were 

*  A  grape-shot  is  made  up  of  nine  small  cast-iron  balls,  fastened  together 
between  iron  plates  so  as  to  be  put  into  a  gun  at  once.  The  firing  of  the 
gun  bursts  the  plates,  and  the  balls  scatter  as  soon  as  they  leave  the  gun. 
A  canister  shot  is  a  sheet-iron  canister  tilled  with  small  balls.  The  canis- 
ter bursts  when  it  is  fired  from  a  gun,  and  the  balls  scatter  and  do  great 
damage. 

f  A  ship  has  three  masts— a  front  one  called  the  foremast,  a  middle  one 
called  the  mainmast,  and  a  hind  one  called  the  mizzenmast.  Each  mast 
is  made  up  of  four  pieces:  the  lower  part,  or  mast  proper,  the  topmast, 
the  topgallant  mast,  and  the  royal  mast.  These  parts  are  fastened  to- 
gether with  iron  bauds;  at  the  head  of  each  of  the  lower  masts  is  a  kind 
of  platform  called  the  top,  and  at  the  head  of  each  of  the  topmasts  are  cross- 
bars of  timber  called  the  cross-trees.  These  are  named  after  the  masts :  thus, 
those  on  the  mainmast  are  called  the  main-top,  the  main  cross  trees,  and 
the  main  topgallant  cross-trees;  and  those  on  the  foremast  the  foretop,  the 
fore  cross-trees,  and  the  fore  topgallant  nvss-trees. 


Canister-Shot. 


Grape-Shot. 


to 


410  PRlVATEEliS.— MOBILE  BAY.  [1864. 

some  sailors  firing  grape  and  canister  shot  at  Fort  Morgan 
from  a  short  cannon  called  a  howitzer,  and  above  them,  sitting 
on  the  fore  topgallant  cross-trees,  and  holding  on  to  the  mast 
with  his  left  arm,  was  Lieutenant  J.  C.  Kinney,  one  of  the  sig- 
nal officers,  who  had  climbed  up  to  this  high  place  so  that  his 
flag  could  be  more  easily  seen,  above  the  smoke,  from  the  other 
ships. 

While  the  ships  were  thus  steaming  into  the  harbor,  and 
fighting  the  forts  as  they  passed,  the  Brooklyn  was  seen  to  be 
stopping  and  signalling  to  the  flag-ship.    The  signal  officer  read: 

"The  monitors  are  right  ahead;  we  cannot  go  on  without 
passing  them." 

As  soon  as  the  Admiral  received  the  message  he  sent  word 
to  the  signal  officer  to  answer: 

"  Order  the  monitors  ahead,  and  go  on." 

"  The  iron-clad  ram  Tennessee  and  the  three  Confederate 
gunboats,  the  Selma,  the  Morgan,  and  the  Gaines,  had  now 
taken  part  in  the  fight.  The  Union  vessels  were  answering 
their  fire  as  well  as  that  of  the  forts,  when  the  monitor  Tecum- 
seh,  which  was  leading,  was  seen  to  careen  on  her  side  and 
almost  instantly  to  go  out  of  sight.  She  had  run  on  a  torpedo 
and  had  sunk  with  her  commander,  Captain  Craven,  and  one 
hundred  and  thirteen  men.  The  pilot  had  just  time  to  leap 
out  of  the  pilot-house  and  a  few  men  in  the  turret  to  throw 
themselves  out  of  the  port-holes  before  she  went  down.  They 
were  picked  up  by  a  small  boat  from  the  Metacomet,  the  officer 
in  <  barge  steering  around"  as  coolly  amongst  the  flying  shot  from 
the  forts  and  gunboats  as  if  he  were  on  parade. 

The  Brooklyn  was  still  stopping  ahead,  and  she  signalled 
again: 

"  Our  best  monitor  is  sunk." 

There  was  great  danger  that  her  pausing  would  throw  the 
whole  fleet  into  confusion,  if  not  force  the  other  ships  ashore. 
Farragut  called  out  to  the  pilot  above  him: 

"What's  the  matter  with  the  Brooklyn?  She  must  have 
plenty  of  water  there. " 

"Plenty,  and  to  spare,  Admiral,"  replied  the  pilot. 

The  Hartford  was  now  close  upon  the  Brooklyn. 

"What's  the  trouble?"  was  asked  through  a  speaking- 
trumpet. 


1864.]  FIGHT  WITH  THE  GUNBOATS.  411 

"Torpedoes!"  was  shouted  back  in  answer. 

"Damn  the  torpedoes!"  cried  Farragut;  and  then,  leaning 
down  through  the  shrouds,  he  shouted  to  the  officer  at  the  bell- 
pull  on  the  quarter-deck: 

"Four  bells!*  eight  bells!  sixteen  bells!  Give  her  all 
the  steam  you've  got!" 

The  Hartford  and  Metacomet,  which  was  still  lashed  to  her, 
then  steamed  rapidly  ahead  past  the  Brooklyn  and  the  moni- 
tors, and  took  the  lead.  The  Confederate  gunboats  turned 
their  fire  on  the  flag-ship,  and  the  ram  Tennessee  steamed 
toward  her  as  if  to  run  her  down.  The  channel  was  narrow,  and 
there  was  danger  that  the  Hartford  might  be  sank  without  being 
able  to  get  out  of  the  way,  for  her  shot  glanced  from  the  iron- 
clad's side  without  doing  any  apparent  damage.  But  the  Ten- 
nessee soon  steered  around  and  went  back  to  attack  some  of  the 
other  vessels.  As  soon  as  deep  water  was  reached,  the  Admiral 
ordered  Captain  Jouett  of  the  Metacomet,  the  fastest  of  the" 
ships,  to  chase  the  Confederate  gunboats.  The  cables  which 
fastened  the  two  ships  were  quickly  cut  with  axes,  and  the 
Metacomet  steamed  ahead  amid  hearty  cheers  from  the  crews. 

The  gunboats  steamed  up  the  bay,  but  the  Metacomet  was 
too  fast  for  them.  The  Gaines  was  soon  crippled,  and  was  run 
ashore  by  her  crew  and  burned,  and  the  Selma  was  captured 
and  brought  back  in  tow.  The  Morgan  ran  away  for  safety 
under  the  guns  of  Fort  Morgan.  The  Tennessee  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  doing  much  injury  to  any  of  the  ships,  and  followed 
the  Morgan,  and  soon  the  rest  of  the  fleet  had  passed  the  forts 
and  come  to  anchor  beside  the  Hartford  in  the  quiet  waters  of 
Mobile  Bay. 

As  the  men  had  only  eaten  some  sandwiches  and  coffee  be- 
fore going  into  battle,  Admiral  Farragut  having  announced  his 
intention  of  breakfasting  within  the  bay,  preparations  were 
now  made  for  getting  the  morning  meal,  when  a  shout  arose, 
"The  ram  is  coming!"  All  hands  were  called  to  quarters 
again,  and  preparations  made  for  another  fight.     The  Tennes- 

*  The  engines  on  a  war  steamer  are  directed  by  means  of  a  bell,  the 
wires  of  which  run  from  the  engine-room  to  the  quarter-deck,  so  that  it 
can  easily  be  rung  by  the  officer  in  charge.  One  stroke  of  the  bell  means 
"go  ahead;"  two  strokes,  "stop;"  three  strokes,  "back;"  and  four 
strokes,  "go  ahead  as  fast  as  possible." 


412  PRIVATEERS.— MOBILE  BAT.  [\BU. 

■tee  came  steaming  up  the  bay,  heading  directly  toward  the 
Hartford.  The  walls  of  both  the  forts,  which  were  out  of  reach  of 
shot,  swarmed  with  men,  anxiously  watching  the  movements  of 
the  vessels.  There  was  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  ram 
would  be  able  to  sink  the  wooden  ships,  and  perhaps  show  her- 
self to  be  a  match  even  for  the  monitors.  She  was  built  much 
like  the  Merrimac,  but  was  stronger,  her  sides  being  eight 
feet  thick,  and  plated  in  her  most  exposed  parts  with  iron  six 
inches  thick.  She  was  armed  with  six  large  rifled  guns  of  the 
best  English  make,  and  her  bow  was  fitted  with  a  ram  to  crush 
in  the  sides  of  an  enemy's  vessel. 

The  signal  "  Attack  the  enemy"  was  hoisted  on  the  Hart- 
ford, and  the  ships  hastened  to  meet  the  coming  monster.  The 
Monongahela,  which  had  an  iron  prow,  was  also  signalled  to 
"run  down  the  ram."  She  steamed  ahead  at  full  speed, 
and  struck  the  Tennessee  a  fair  blow  on  her  side,  which,  while 
it  did  not  hurt  the  ram,  broke  the  Monongahela's  prow,  and 
injured  her  otherwise.  After  striking  her,  she  swung  round 
and  fired  into  the  Tennessee  her  heavy  guns  at  only  a  few  feet 
distance  from  her,  but  the  shot  glanced  off  and  fell  harmlessly 
into  the  water.  The  Lackawanna  then  rammed  her  at  full 
speed,  crushing  her  own  bow,  but  doing  little  harm  to  the 
enemy.  As  she  swung  round,  the  men  on  board  the  ram  could 
be  seen  through  the  open  ports.  They  called  the  Union  men 
some  hard  names,  and  some  of  the  latter  threw  a  spittoon  and 
a  holystone*  at  them,  and  drove  them  away.  The  Hartford 
struck  the  ram  next,  but  the  Tennessee  turned  as  she  came  at 
her,  so  that  the  blow  was  a  glancing  one.  As  the  two  vessels 
came  side  by  side  the  Hartford  fired  her  whole  broadside  of  ten 
heavy  guns  at  the  ram,  but  the  balls  only  dented  her  iron 
plates.  At  the  same  time  a  shell  from  the  Tennessee  passed 
through  the  Hartford,  killing  five  men  and  wounding  eight. 
When  the  vessels  struck,  Admiral  Farragut  stood  upon  the 
port  or  left-hand  rail  of  the  Hartford,  holding  on  by  the  rig- 
ging, and  he  could  easily  have  jumped  on  to  the  deck  of  the 
ram  as  she  passed. 

The  monitors  then  began  to  fire,  and  all  the  vessels  of  the 
fleet  took  part  in  the  fight.     The  Hartford  went  at  the  Ten- 

*  A  stone  used  by  sailors  in  scrubbing  the  deck  of  a  vessel, 


1864.] 


THE  TENNESSEE  SURRENDERS. 


413 


nessee  again  at  full  speed,  but  before  she  reached  her  the  Lacka-. 

wanna  ran  into  the  Hartford,  cutting  through  her  starboard  or 

right  side  nearly  to  the  water's  edge.     Everybody  thought  the 

end  of  the  Hartford  had  come,  and  there  was  a  shout  of  "  Save  the 

Admiral!"     Some  boats  were  lowered,  but  the  Admiral  rushed 

to  the  starboard  side,  and  springing  into  the  rigging  leaned 

over  to  see  what  damage  had  been  done.     Seeing  that  the  hole 

was  a  little  above  the  water, 

he  hastily  ordered  the  ship 

to  steam  for  the  ram  again. 

The  Tennessee  was  then  in 

a  sad  plight.    The  monitor 

Chickasaw  had  broken  her 

rudder-chains  so  that  she 

could  not  be  steered,  the 

monitor    Manhattan     had 

smashed    her    iron   armor 

and  nearly  forced  a  hole 

through  her  solid  wooden 

sides,  her  smoke-stack  had 

been   shot    away,  and  her 

commander  had  been  badly 

wounded  by  a  piece  of  a 

shell  which  burst  in  one  of 

her  port-holes.     Several  of 

the  ships  were  coming  at 

her   at   full  speed  to  sink 

her,  if  possible.    Although 

the  blows  from  the  ships  did 

not  appear  to  damage  her 

much,  the  concussion  from 

them  was  so  great  that  her 

crew  could  not  keep  their  lighthouse  at  ]■•„,.•  ,■  n,,,,,^  .->     ,-,..  :■...« 

feet.      Just  as  the  Ossipee  bardment. 

was  about  to  strike  her,  a  staff  with  a  white  flag  was  poked  up 

through  the  iron  grating  on  her  deck.     The  great  ram  had 

surrendered.      The    Ossipee    slowed   her   engines,    the    firing 

ceased,  and  cheers  of  victory  went  up  from  the  fleet— such 

cheers  as  only  sailors  can  give. 

The  officer  sent  on  board  of  the  Tennessee  to  receive  her 


.- 


414 


PRIVATEERS.— MOBILE  BAT. 


1864.] 


surrender  was  Captain  Heywood,  of  the  Marine  Corps,  who  was 
one  of  those  saved  from  the  frigate  Cumberland  when  it  was 
sunk  by  Admiral  Buchanan  in  the  Merrimac.  Buchanan  lost 
a  leg  in  the  fight  with  the  fleet,  but  only  six  of  his  crew  were 
among  the  dead  and  wounded.  Farragut  lost  more  men  in  the 
fight  with  the  ram  than  in  passing  the  fort.  His  total  loss, 
including  those  drowned  in  the  Tecumseh,  was  one  hundred 
and  sixty-five  killed,  and  abovit  as  many  wounded. 

But  the  battle  was  not  yet  won,  for  the  forts  had  been  only 
passed,  not  taken.  But  the  garrison  of  Fort  Powell,  discour- 
aged at  the  result  of  the  Tennessee's  attack,  left  their  works 
and  blew  them  up  during  the  following  night.  The  next  day 
Fort  Gaines  was  shelled  by  the  Chickasaw,  and  forced  to  sur- 
render with  eight  hundred  prisoners.  The  troops  that  had 
been  besieging  it  were  then  taken  across  to  Mobile  Point, 
where  works  were  built  behind  Fort  Morgan.  Guns  were 
mounted,  and  the  fort  bombarded  from  land  and  sea,  and 
forced  to  surrender  (August  23).  The  fort  itself  was  not  very 
badly  injured,  but  the  light-house,  which  stood  in  range  of  the 
guns  from  the  ships,  was  nearly  demolished,  as  shown  in  the 
picture.  By  this  victory  the  port  of  Mobile  was  closed  against 
blockade-runners.  The  city  itself  did  not  fall  until  the  next 
spring  (April,  1865). 


Floating  Battery. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 
THE    SOUTH    AND    WEST. 

Sherman's  Meridian  Expedition.— Jeff  Davis's  Neckties.— Sherman's  Danger.—  De  Dat 
ob  Jubilee.— Smith  Defeated  by  Forrest.— Paducah  Attacked.— Massacre  at  For'^ 
Pillow.— Forrest  Defeats  Sturgis.— A  Ride  into  Memphis.— Sherman  and  Banks.— 
The  Anvil  Chorus.— The  Red  River  Expedition.— Fort  De  Russey.— Kirby  Smith  and 
Dick  Taylor.— Natchitoches.— Battle  of  Mansfield.— A  Skedaddle.— Battle  of 
Pleasant  Hill.— Loss  of  the  Eastport— The  Dam  at  Alexandria.— Saving  the  Fleet. 
—Cotton  Stealing.— Canby  Succeeds  Banks.— Steele's  Defeat  in  Arkansas.— The  Last 
Invasion  of  Missouri.— Pleasonton  and  Curtis.— Price's  Flight.— John  Morgan  in 
Kentucky  Again.— Burbridge  Defeats  Him.— Morgan's  Death. 

WE  left  General  Sherman  with  his  army  in  winter  quarters 
near  Chattanooga,  after  his  return  from  Knoxville  (page 
386).  Near  the  end  of  January  he  was  ordered  to  Vicksburg, 
to  take  command  of  an  expedition  about  to  start  from  there  to 
destroy  the  railroads  at  Meridian,  in  Mississippi.  Meridian 
was  a  small  place,  but  it  was  the  point  of  meeting  of  two  im- 
portant railroads,  the  Mobile  and  Ohio,  running  northward  from 
Mobile,  and  the  Southern  Mississippi,  running  eastward  from 
Vicksburg.  After  the  Confederates  lost  command  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi River  they  had  to  depend  largely  on  these  railroads  for 
the  movement  of  troops  and  supplies. 

Sherman  set  out  from  Vicksburg  (Feb.  3)  with  about  twen- 
ty-three thousand  men.  But  little  baggage  and  no  tents  were 
carried,  and  the  force  pushed  on  rapidly,  skirmishing  with  bodies 
of  Confederate  troops  at  different  places.  After  passing  Jack- 
son everything  which  might  aid  the  enemy  was  utterly  de- 
stroyed. Mills,  railway  stations,  and  machine-shops  were  burned 
and  the  railroads  torn  up  with  crowbars  and  clawbars,  and  so 
injured  that  they  could  not  be  used  again  without  great  labor. 
The  railway  ties  were  piled  in  heaps  and  set  on  fire,  and  the 
rails  then  laid  across  them.  When  heated  red-hot  the  iron  was 
twisted  so  as  to  be  useless.  A  bent  rail  can  be  straightened 
again,  but  a  twisted  rail  cannot.  Sometimes  the  men  twined 
the  rails  around  trees,  as  shown  in  the  picture.  These  were 
called  by  them  Jeff  Davis's  neckties. 

Confederate  cavalry  hovered  around  the  army  during  nearly 
the  whole  march,  and  once  they  came  very  near  capturing  Gen- 


416 


THE  SOUTH  AND   WEST. 


[1864. 


eral  Sherman.  He  stopped  to  get  some  supper  at  a  small  log 
house  in  Decatur,  and  being  tired  lay  down  on  a  bed  and  fell 
asleep.  Presently  he  was  awakened  by  shouts  and  pistol-shots 
outside,  and  an  officer  rushed  in  and  told  him  that  they  were  at- 
tacked by  cavalry  who  were  all  around  the  house.  Sherman  ran 
out  into  the  back  yard  and  saw  wagons  going  very  fast  down 
the  road  and  horsemen  dashing  after  them  in  a  cloud  of  dust, 
yelling  and  firing  pistols.  He  was  just  about  going  into  a  corn- 
crib  in  the  rear  with  the  few  men  he  had  around  him  to  defend 
himself,  when  a  Union  infantry  regiment,  which  had  passed  by 
shortly  before,  came  back  on  a  run  and  soon  cleared  the  road  of 
the  cavalry. 

Meridian  was  reached  in  the  afternoon  of  the  14th  and  found 
nearly  deserted,  the  Confederates,  under  General  Polk,  having 
left  it  that  morning.  Five  days  were  spent  in  destroying  the 
arsenals,  storehouses,  hospitals,  stations,  and 
machine-shops  there,  nothing  being  left  but 
the  houses  in  which  people  were  actually 
living.  The  railroads  too,  north,  south, 
and  east  of  Meridian,  were  so  damaged  that 
they  could  not  be  used  again,  says  Sherman, 
for  the  rest  of  the  war.  It  was  a  heavy 
blow  to  the  Confederates,  for  through  Me- 
ridian had  been  sent  their  troops  and  "sup- 
plies from  Mobile  northward.  General  Sher- 
man had  ordered  General  W.  S.  Smith  to 
march  from  Memphis  with  another  force  of 
nearly  ten  thousand  men,  mostly  cavalry,  and  to  be  in  Meridian 
by  the  10th  of  February.  Having  waited  for  him  until  thr 
20th,  Sherman  returned  to  Vicksburg.  On  the  march  back 
the  army  was  followed  by  thousands  of  negroes,  men,  women, 
and  children,  some  on  foot,  some  mounted  on  horses  or  mules, 
and  some  in  ox-carts.  Some  were  dressed  in  their  masters' 
cast-off  clothes,  some  shivering  in  their  scant  plantation  dresses; 
some  of  the  women  with  gay  bandana  handkerchiefs  around 
their  heads,  and  others  decked  with  bits  of  faded  ribbons  and 
discarded  finery.  Sometimes  the  father  of  a  family  strode  in 
front  carrying  over  his  shoulder  a  stick  hung  with  bundles  and 
all  kinds  of  trumpery,  while  behind  trudged  the  mother  with 
an  infant  in  her  arms,  and  perhaps  another  child  on  her  back 


Jeff  Davis's  Necktie. 


1864.] 


FORT  PILLOW. 


417 


and  still  another  clinging  to  her  skirts.  So  they  tramped  along 
in  crowds,  laughing,  shouting,  and  singing  "Deday  ob  jubilee 
is  come."  The  fugitives  were  a  great  incumbrance  to  the  army, 
but  they  could  not  be  left  in  that  desolated  country  to  starve,  so 
they  were  sent  forward  with  the  trains  in  advance  of  the  sol- 
diers to  Vicksburg. 

General  Smith,  whom  Sherman  had  ordered  to  meet  him  at 
Meridian,  fell  in  with  a  force  of  Confederate  cavalry,  under 
General  N.  B.  Forrest,  atOkolona,  lost  five  guns,  and  was  forced 
to  retreat  to  Memphis.  Forrest  then  went  on  a  raid  into  Ten- 
nessee and  Kentucky  with  about  five  thousand  mounted  men. 
He  captured  Union  City,  Tennessee,  with  four  hundred  and  fifty 
Union  prisoners,  and  pressed  on  to  Paducah,  Kentucky,  which 


The  New  Era. 

was  garrisoned  by  about  seven  hundred  men.  Forrest  demanded 
the  surrender  of  Fort  Anderson,  in  which  the  Union  men  were, 
and  said  that  if  he  had  to  storm  the  works  no  quarter  would  be 
given.  Colonel  Hicks,  the  Union  commander,  refused,  and 
Forrest  made  several  attempts  to  take  the  place,  but  was  re- 
pulsed, and  left  with  a  loss  of  about  three  hundred  men. 

Forrest  then  went  into  Tennessee  again  and  appeared  before 
Fort  Pillow,  above  Memphis  (April  12).  The  garrison  con- 
sisted of  about  five  hundred  and  fifty  men,  half  of  whom  were 
negroes.  Forrest's  men  began  the  attack  before  sunrise,  and 
after  some  hard  fighting,  in  which  Major  Booth,  the  Union 
commander,  was  killed,  the  garrison  was  driven  from  the  outer 


418  THE  SOUTH  AND   WEST.  [1864 

works  into  the  inner  fort.  The  gunboat  New  Era  aided  in  the 
defence,  but  the  river  bank  was  too  high  to  make  her  firing  of 
much  avail.  About  1  o'clock  the  gunboat  moved  out  into  the 
river  to  cool  and  clean  its  guns.  Forrest  sent  a  flag  of  truce  to 
the  fort,  demanding  its  surrender.  The  commander,  Major 
Bradford,  asked  for  an  hour  to  consult  with  the  officers  of  the 
gunboat.  Shortly  afterward  Forrest  sent  another  flag  of  truce, 
saying  that  he  would  give  him  twenty  minutes  to  move  his 
troops  out,  and  that  he  should  assault  if  it  were  not  done  within 
that  time.  During  this  time  Forrest,  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  war,  which  do  not  allow  of  any  military  movement  under  a 
flag  of  truce,  was  moving  his  men  up  into  good  positions. 
Major  Bradford  declined  to  surrender,  and  Forrest's  men  then 
made  a  rush  upon  the  fort,  with  shouts  of  "No  quarter!"  The 
attack  was  so  sudden  and  was  made  with  such  numbers  that 
there  was  little  chance  for  resistance.  The  Union  soldiers, 
white  and  black,  threw  down  their  guns  and  tried  to  escape  by 
running  down  the  steep  bluff  to  the  river.  Some  hid  behind 
logs  and  bushes  and  some  jumped  into  the  water,  leaving  only 
their  heads  out.  But  wherever  they  went  they  were  sought  out 
by  the  enemy  and  slaughtered,  neither  officers  nor  men,  women 
nor  children,  being  spared.  Even  the  sick  and  wounded  in  the 
hospitals  were  dragged  out  of  their  beds  and  butchered.  The 
huts  and  tents  within  the  fort,  into  which  many  of  the  wounded 
had  run  for  shelter,  were  set  on  fire,  and  the  unfortunates  shot  or 
bayoneted  as  they  ran  out.  The  waters  of  the  river  and  the 
banks  of  the  bluff  were  red  with  blood  and  filled  with  the  bodies 
of  the  slain.  Between  three  and  four  hundred  wrere  thus 
murdered,  most  of  them  after  they  had  thrown  down  their 
arms. 

It  is  only  fair  to  state  that  General  Forrest  says  in  his  official 
report  of  the  capture  that  the  Union  troops  kept  firing  on  his 
men  as  they  retreated  toward  the  river,  probably  expecting  that 
the  gunboat  would  shell  the  Confederates  back  and  thus  pro- 
tect those  under  the  bank  until  she  could  run  in  and  take  them 
off.  He  also  says  that  the  flag  of  the  fort  was  kept  flying  until 
some  of  the  Confederates  cut  the  halyards,  and  that  when  the 
flag  came  down  the  firing  ceased.  But  this  is  not  proved  by 
the  testimony  taken  by  a  committee  sent  by  Congress  to  look 
into  the  affair,  and  the  massacre  must  ever  remain  a  blot  on 


1864.] 


RAID  INTO  MEMPHIS. 


419 


General  Forrest's  name.  There  is  no  doubt  that  great  harm  was 
done  by  it  to  the  Confederacy  both  here  and  in  Europe,  and 
that  many  who  had  before  been  friendly  to  it  became  forever 
turned  against  it. 

Forrest  then  went  into  Mississippi.  In  June,  General  Stur- 
gis,  with  about  nine  thousand  infantry  and  three  thousand  cav- 
alry, under  Grierson,  went  to  find  him.  He  met  Forrest  near 
Gun  Town,  and  was  badly  beaten  and  pursued  nearly  to  Mem- 
phis, losing  all  his  train  and  between  three  and  four  thousand 
men.  Another  expedition,  under  General  A.  J.  Smith,  was 
sent  in  July  against  this  bold  Confederate  cavalry  leader,  with 
but  little  better  result:  a  battle  was  f ought  near  Tupelo,  and 
Smith,  like  Sturgis,  was  forced  to  retreat  to  Memphis.  In  about 
three  weeks  Smith  start- 
ed again  to  find  Forrest, 
but  the  latter  eluded  him, 
and  riding  around  him 
with  about  three  thou- 
sand horsemen,  made  a 
dash  into  Memphis. 
There  were  at  the  time 
in  and  around  the  city 
about  six  thousand  Un- 
ion troops,  but  regardless 
of  them  the  Confeder- 
ates rode  boldly  in 
early  one  morning  (Aug. 
21),  and  went  directly 
to  the  Gayoso  House, 
the  principal  hotel,  then  the  headcpiarters  of  several  generals. 
They  failed  to  catch  them,  but  carried  away  some  of  their 
staff  officers  and  about  three  hundred  privates.  The  Union 
soldiers  were  soon  after  them,  and  the  Confederates  had 
to  leave  the  city,  losing  about  two  hundred  men  in  a  fight 
near  by. 

As  soon  as  General  Sherman  returned  from  his  Meridian 
expedition,  he  hastened  to  New  Orleans  to  see  General  Banks, 
who  was  about  starting  on  an  expedition  up  the  Eed  Kiver. 
He  reached  the  city  on  the  2d  of  March,  made  with  Banks 
a  plan  for  the  campaign,  and  went  back  the  next  day.     Banks 


N.  B.  Forrest. 


420 


TUB  SOUTH  AND   WEST. 


[1864 


wanted  him  to  remain  to  attend  the  ceremonies  to  celebrate  the 
setting  up  of  a  civil  government  for  Louisiana,  and  told  him 
that  the  "  Anvil  Chorus"  was  to  be  performed  by  all  the  bands 
in  the  army,  and  that  the  church  bells  were  to  be  rung  and 
cannons  were  to  be  fired  by  electricity.  But  Sherman,  who  was 
made  of  sterner  stuff,  declined  to  delay  his  business  to  attend 
such  a  performance,  which  he  considered  out  of  place  in  time 
of  war.  He  had  promised  Banks  that  he  would  send  ten  thou- 
sand men  to  meet  his  forces  at  Alexandria  on  the  17th  of  March. 
As  soon  as  he  got  back  he  sent  them,  under  General  A.  J.  Smith, 
up  the  Red  River,  attended  by  Admiral  Porter's  fleet.  Fort 
De  Russey,  below  Alexandria,  was  taken,  and  the  army  and 


Map  of  the  Red  River  Expedition. 

fleet  reached  Alexandria  at  the  appointed  time,  but  General 
Banks  did  not  arrive  until  several  days  afterward. 

The  main  object  of  the  expedition  was  the  capture  of  Shreve- 
port,  a  town  at  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation  on  the  Red 
River,  near  the  boundary  of  Texas,  which  the  Confederates  had 
made  a  depot  for  army  supplies,  still  sent  in  a  stealthy  way 
across  the  Mississippi.  It  was  thought  too  that  Shreveport 
was  needed  as  a  base  for  an  expedition  into  Texas,  which  was 
believed  by  some  of  tbe  politicians  to  be  necessary  on  account 
of  the  movements  of  the  French  in  Mexico.  A  third  reason  for 
the  expedition  was  the  hope  that  large  quantities  of  cotton 


1864/ 


RED  RIVER  EXPEDITION. 


421 


might  be  obtained  in  that  region,  where   it  is  the  principal 
crop. 

At  this  time  the  Confederate  forces  west  of  the  Mississippi 
were  under  command  of  General  E.  Kirby  Smith,  who,  it  will 
be  remembered,  had  given  such  timely  aid  in  the  first  battle  of 
Bull  Run  (page  98).  Smith  had  in  all  about  forty  thousand 
men,  but  some  of  these  were  in  Texas  and  some  in  Arkansas. 
General  Dick  Taylor,  with  the  remainder,  was  at  Shreveport, 
where  he  was  waiting  for  more  troops  to  join  him. 

The  Red  River,  which  gets  its  name  from  the  red  earth 
which  colors  its  waters  at  all  times  excepting  in  low-water  sea- 
sons, is  usually  high  in  the  spring,  but  at  that  time  both  it  and 
the  Mississippi  were  very  .*■£*=- 

low.      At  Alexandria  are  /W1 

rapids  over  which  steam- 
boats can  pass  only  when 
there  is  plenty  of  water, 
and  Porter's  gunboats, 
which  Banks  felt  that  he 
could  not  do  without,  were 
stopped  by  them.  After 
hard  work  about  half  of 
them  were  forced  up.  But 
few  of  the  boats  for  carry- 
ing supplies  could  get  over 
the  rapids,  and  so  the 
army  had  to  take  along  a 
large  wagon  train.  Gene- 
ral Franklin,  who  commanded  the  advance  of  the  army,  pushed 
on  up  the  river  and  arrived  at  Natchitoches  in  the  beginning 
of  April.  The  troops  had  skirmished  nearly  all  the  way  with 
bodies  of  Confederates,  who  retreated  before  them.  Natchi- 
toches is  on  an  old  channel  of  Red  River.  Four  miles 
nearly  north  of  it  is  Grand  Ecore,  on  the  present  channel  of 
the  river.  The  river,  which  had  been  expected  to  rise,  was 
falling  all  the  time,  and  the  gunboats  could  go  no  further  than 
Grand  Ecore.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  army  went  on  to- 
ward Shreveport,  which  is  a  hundred  miles  further  up.  The 
road  thither  from  Natchitoches  runs  through  a  pine-covered, 
sandy  country,  but  sparsely  inhabited. 


E.  Kirby  Smith. 


422 


THE  SOUTH  AND   WEST. 


[1864 


On  the  8th  of  April  the  main  body  of  the  Confederates, 
under  General  Taylor,  was  found  strongly  posted  at  a 
place  called  Sabine  Cross  Roads,  near  Mansfield,  forty  miles 
from  Shreveport.  Skirmishing  had  been  going  on  all  day,  but 
as  the  Confederates  had  always  fallen  back  before  the  Union 
advance,  Banks's  troops  marched  as  if  they  had  no  fear  of  a 
serious  attack.  The  cavalry  were  in  front,  followed  by  a  long 
wagon  train,  and  behind  it  came  the  infantry.  The  line  was 
stretched  out  along  a  single  road  twenty  or  thirty  miles.  About 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  General  Taylor,  wishing  to  camp 
for  the  night,  sent  some  troops  to  drive  back  the  Union  advance 
guard.    This  brought  on  a  fight,  and  in  a  few  minutes  it  turned 

into  a  general  battle.  Banks 
tried  to  get  up  his  infantrv 
but  the  road  was  blocked 
with  the  wagons.  The  Union 
men  fought  desperately  for 
an  hour  and  a  half,  but,  over- 
powered by  superior  num- 
bers, they  gave  way  and  be- 
gan to  fall  back.  A  writer 
who  was  on  the  field  tells 
very  graphically  what  then 
took  place: 

"Suddenly  there  was  a 
rush,  a  shout,  the  crashing 
of  trees,  the  breaking  down 
of  rails,  the  rush  and  scamper  of  men.  It  was  as  sudden  as  though 
a  thunderbolt  had  fallen  among  us  and  set  the  pines  on  fire. 
What  caused  it,  or  when  it  commenced,  no  one  knew.  .  .  .  We 
found  ourselves  swallowed  up,  as  it  were,  in  a  hissing,  seething, 
bubbling  whirlpool  of  men.  .  .  .  The  line  of  battle  had  given 
way.  General  Banks  took  off  his  hat  and  implored  the  men  to 
remain;  his  staff-officers  did  the  same,  but  it  was  of  no  avail. 
Then  the  General  drew  his  sabre  and  endeavored  to  rally  his 
men,  but  they  would  not  listen.  Behind  him  the  rebels  were 
shouting  and  advancing.  Their  musket-balls  filled  the  air  with 
that  strange  file-rasping  sound  that  war  has  made  familiar  to 
our  fighting  men.  The  teams  were  abandoned  by  the  drivers, 
the  traces  cut,  and  the  animals  ridden  off  by  the  frightened 


Nathaniel  P.  Banks. 


1864.]  PLEASANT  HILL.  423 

men.  Bareheaded  riders  rode  with  agony  in  their  faces,  and 
for  at  least  ten  minutes  it  seemed  as  if  we  were  going  to  destruc- 
tion together." 

After  a  flight  of  three  miles,  the  Nineteenth  Corps  was 
found  drawn  up  in  line.  The  fugitives  fled  behind  it,  and  the 
Confederates  attacked  the  new  line;  but  it  held  its  ground  until 
night,  when  the  enemy  ceased  his  efforts.  Banks's  loss  in  this 
battle,  which  is  sometimes  called  the  battle  of  Mansfield  and 
sometimes  of  Sabine  Cross  Roads,  was  more  than  three  thou- 
sand men,  nineteen  guns,  many  wagons  and  horses,  and  an  im- 
mense amount  of  stores.  During  the  night  the  army  fell  back 
to  Pleasant  Hill,  where  General  Smith  had  arrived  with  the 
Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Corps.  The  Confederate  cavalry 
followed,  picking  up  hundreds  of  stragglers  on  the  way.  From 
the  battle-field  to  within  a  few  miles  of  Mansfield  the  road  was 
strewn  with  deserted  wagons,  ambulances,  and  caissons,  burned 
or  broken;  with  boxes  of  ammunition,  crackers,  and  medicines; 
and  with  the  bodies  of  men,  mules,  and  horses. 

After  skirmishing  several  hours  the  next  day  (April  9),  the 
Confederates  made  a  heavy  attack  on  the  Union  lines  about  five 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  After  a  hard  struggle  the  Union  men 
succeeded  in  checking  them,  and  drove  them  from  the  field. 
Banks  was  satisfied  with  this  and  made  no  attempt  to  follow 
up  his  success,  but  fell  back  to  Grand  Ecore,  leaving  his  dead 
and  wounded  on  the  field.  The  Confederate  cavalry  followed 
him  all  the  way  to  Alexandria,  where  he  was  obliged  to  make 
another  stand  to  save  his  gunboats,  as  the  river  had  fallen  so 
that  it  was  impossible  to  float  them  over  the  rapids.  The  ves- 
sels had  comedown  the  narrow  river  with  the  greatest  difficulty, 
for  the  banks  swarmed  with  sharpshooters,  who  fired  at  the  crews 
at  every  opportunity.  Three  days  after  the  battle  of  Pleasant 
Hill  a  body  of  two  thousand  men  opened  fire  with  muskets  on 
the  Osage,  which  was  fast  aground.  They  also  brought  up  two 
cannons,  but  the  guns  of  the  Osage  soon  knocked  them  over, 
and  the  men  were  put  to  flight  by  showers  of  canister  fired 
among  them.  A  large  number  of  them  were  killed  and  wounded. 

Admiral  Porter  was  nearly  discouraged  at  the  situation  and 
could  see  no  way  of  saving  the  fleet.  One  of  the  best  gunboats, 
the  Eastport,  had  been  sunk  by  a  torpedo,  and  though  raised 
had  finally  got  hard  aground  up  the  river  and  been  blown  up, 


424  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST.  [1863. 

and  it  looked  as  if  the  others  would  have  to  be  treated  in  the 
same  way  to  save  them  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  But  Lieutenant-Colonel  Joseph  Bailey  proposed  build- 
ing some  dams  across  the  rapids,  so  as  to  raise  the  water  high 
enough  to  let  the  vessels  pass.  The  best  army  engineers  made 
fun  of  his  plan  and  said  it  would  prove  a  failure,  but  it  was  con- 
cluded to  try  it.  The  falls  or  rapids  are  about  a  mile  long  and 
are  filled  with  rugged  rocks  very  dangerous  to  a  vessel  when 
the  water  is  low.  Three  thousand  men  were  set  at  work  cut- 
ting down  trees  and  quarrying  stone,  and  several  hundred 
wagons  and  flatboats  were  employed  in  drawing  the  materials 
to  their  proper  places.  In  eight  days  a  dam  three  hundred  feet 
long  had  been  built  and  the  water  had  risen  enough  to  let  sev- 
eral of  the  gunboats  pass  the  upper  falls.  They  had  next  to  go 
through  an  open  place  left  in  the  dam.  The  Lexington  made 
the  passage  first.  The  water  was  rushing  so  furiously  through 
the  narrow  opening  that  it  looked  as  if  destruction  awaited  her. 
There  was  almost  breathless  silence  among  the  spectators  along 
the  bank  as  she  steered  directly  into  the  current  with  all  steam 
on.  She  gave  two  or  three  heavy  rolls  as  she  was  carried  along 
by  the  roaring  torrent,  bung  for  a  moment  on  the  rocks,  and 
then  swept  into  the  deep  water  below.  She  was  followed  in 
safety  by  the  Neosho,  the  Fort  Hiudman,  and  the  Osage,  amid 
the  cheers  of  the  thousands  looking  on.  An  accident  to  the 
dam  delayed  the  passage  of  the  other  vessels  for  a  few  days,  but 
they  were  all  finally  saved,  and  the  fleet  returned  again  to  the 
Mississippi. 

Banks's  troops  marched  from  Alexandria  on  the  14th  of 
May,  leaving  the  town  in  a  blaze  behind  them.  The  Confeder- 
ates claim  that  but  few  cotton-gins,  sugar-houses,  or  even  dwell- 
ing-houses were,  left  by  them  in  the  country  through  which 
they  passed.  But  the  half  has  not  yet  been  told  of  this  most 
disgraceful  affair,  which  was  rather  a  great  cotton-stealing  raid 
than  a  military  expedition.  Men  with  passes  from  Washington 
followed  the  army,  carrying  with  them  bagging  and  ropes  to 
bale  the  cotton  which  they  expected  to  gather;  and  officers  quar- 
relled over  that  which  was  captured,  the  navy  men  claiming 
that  all  taken  within  a  certain  distance  of  the  river  belonged  to 
them. 

The  army  had  several  fights  with  the  Confederates  on  the 


1863.] 


STEELE'S  DISASTER. 


425 


way  down,  but  succeeded  in  repulsing  them.  The  Atchafalaya 
Eiver  was  crossed  on  a  bridge  made  by  Colonel  Bailey  of  twenty- 
six  steamboats  placed  side  by  side  (May  20),  and  Banks  then 
gave  up  the  command  to  General  Edward  R.  S.  Canby,  who 
had  been  sent  to  take  his  place. 

After  the  battle  of  Vicksburg,  Grant  had  sent  General  Steele 
with  a  force  to  Arkansas  to  drive  the  Confederates  south  of  the 
Arkansas  River.  Steele  was  successful  and  took  possession  of 
the  capital,  Little  Rock,  on  the  10th  of  September  (1863). 
When  Banks  started  on  his  expedition  Steele  had  been  ordered 
to  aid  him  by  marching  from  Little  Rock  toward  Shreveport. 
He  marched  with  twelve  thousand  infantry  and  three  thousand 
cavalry  to  Camden,  where 
he  heard  of  Banks's  failure 
through  the  Confederates, 
who,  after  their  victory, 
had  sent  many  of  their 
troops  against  him.  Gene- 
ral Price  had  at  that  time 
in  southwestern  Arkansas 
about  twelve  thousand 
men,  and  his  force  was 
nearly  doubled  by  the  ar- 
rivals from  Louisiana. 
Steele  was  forced  to  retreat 
to  Little  Rock,  which  he 
reached  on  the  2d  of  May. 
He  was  followed  up  by  the  Confederates,  who  attacked  him  at 
every  opportunity,  and  he  barely  succeeded  in  saving  his  army 
with  the  loss  of  some  of  his  artillery  and  hundreds  of  wagons. 
Both  men  and  horses  were  nearly  starved  when  they  reached 
Little  Rock.  A  supply  train  met  them  near  there,  and  passing 
along  the  road  beside  the  columns  of  troops  threw  out  piles  of 
hard-tack,  and  the  men  scrambled  for  it  in  the  mud  and  de- 
voured it  as  they  marched. 

This  disaster  gave  most  of  Arkansas  back  to  the  Confeder- 
ates, who  soon  became  more  troublesome.  During  the  follow- 
ing August,  Price  invaded  Missouri  again  with  about  ten  thou- 
sand men.  General  Rosecrans,  then  in  command  there,  was 
reinforced  so  that  he  had  more  men  than  Price,  and  it  was  ex- 


Edwabd  R.  S.  Canby. 


426  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST.  [1863. 

pected  that  he  would  drive  the  Confederates  out  of  the  State, 
while  General  Steele  cut  off  their  retreat  in  Arkansas.  Price 
roamed  through  Missouri,  even  threatening  St.  Louis  and  Jef- 
ferson City,  and  finally  moved  up  the  Missouri  Eiver  toward 
Kansas.  General  Curtis,  who  commanded  there,  gathered 
troops  to  fight  him,  and  General  Pleasonton,  with  Rosecrans's 
cavalry,  followed  the  Confederates.  Price  then  turned  south- 
ward, but  was  overtaken  in  October  and  defeated  at  the  Big  Blue 
Eiver  and  again  at  the  Little  Osage  River.  In  the  latter  fight 
the  Union  troops  captured  eight  guns  and  a  thousand  prisoners, 
among  whom  were  Generals  Marmaduke  and  Cabell.  With 
the  rest  of  his  men  Price  continued  his  flight,  leaving  the  roads 
strewn  with  broken  wagons  and  other  abandoned  things,  and 
escaped  into  western  Arkansas.  This  was  the  last  invasion  of 
Missouri. 

We  left  John  Morgan  safe  in  the  Confederate  lines,  after 
his  escape  from  prison  in  Ohio  (page  3?5).  He  went  to  Rich- 
mond, where  he  was  received  as  a  hero,  and  was  soon  on  duty 
again  in  Eastern  Tennessee.  For  a  time  he  helped  Longstreet, 
who  was  still  threatening  Knoxville,  but  in  the  spring  of  1864 
Longstreet  went  back  to  Virginia,  and  soon  afterward  Morgan 
made  another  raid  into  Kentucky,  which  proved  to  be  his  last. 
He  started  with  about  twenty-five  hundred  poorly  mounted 
men,  but  as  he  rode  through  the  rich  counties  of  that  State  he 
obtained  fresh  horses  and  moved  so  fast  that  he  met  but  little 
resistance.  He  captured  many  wealthy  towns,  burned  railway 
stations  and  tore  up  railway  tracks,  and  plundered  the  whole 
country  through  which  he  passed.  The  Union  General  Bur- 
bridge  pursued  him  with  a  strong  force,  surprised  him  at 
Mount  Sterling,  and  badly  defeated  him  at  Cynthiana,  taking 
from  him  more  than  a  thousand  horses.  Morgan  retreated 
with  the  remains  of  his  force  into  Eastern  Tennessee.  •  Early 
in  September  he  was  at  Greenville,  and  had  given  orders  to 
move  against  a  Union  force  under  General  Gillem,  about  six- 
teen miles  away.  On  account  of  rain  at  midnight  he  counter- 
manded the  order,  and  went  to  bed  in  the  house  of  a  Mr. 
Williams,  where  he  had  made  his  headquarters.  The  Union 
troops,  regardless  of  the  storm,  made  an  attack  on  his  force, 
and  surrounded  the  house  about  seven  o'clock  the  next  morn- 
ing (Sept.  4).     Morgan,  surprised,  ran  out  of  the  house  with- 


1863.] 


DEATH  OF  MORGAN. 


427 


out  his  coat,  and  took  refuge  in  a  vineyard  behind  the  house. 
A  soldier  called  to  him  to  halt,  when  Morgan  pointed  his  pis- 
tol at  him,  and  the  soldier  shot  him  through  the  heart.  This 
is  the  common  account  of  Morgan's  death,  but  it  is  proper  to 
add  that  his  friends  say  that  he  had  surrendered  and  was  actu- 
ally a  prisoner  when  a  Union  cavalryman  rode  up  and  killed 
him. 


Signal  Station. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 
GRANT    IN    VIRGINIA. 

The  Confederacy  in  1863.— Poverty  and  Paper  Money.— Christmas  in  Richmond.— Treat- 
ment of  Union  Prisoners.— Exchanges.— Negro  Soldiers.— Prison  Camps.— Libby 
Prison.— Belle  Isle.— Efforts  to  Free  Prisoners.— Ulric  Dahlgren.— a  Mine  under 
Libby.— Grant  made  Lieutenant-General.— His  Commission.— Grant  with  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac— His  Plan.— The  Eapidan  Crossed.— Battle  of  the  Wilderness.— Lee 
in  Danger.—  Longstreet  Wounded.— Fire  in  the  Woods.— The  March  to  Spotsylva- 
nia.—Sharpshooters.— Death  of  Sedgwick.— Battle  of  Spottsylvania.— I  Propose  to 
Fight  it  Out  on  this  Line.— Hancock  and  Stewart.— Danger  of  the  Confederate 
Army.— Terrible  Musketry  Fire.— Grant  again  Marches  Southward. 

WE  left  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  under  General  Meade, 
and  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  under  General 
Lee,  in  winter  quarters  on  the  Eapidan  at  the  close  of  1863,  the 
former  on  the  northern,  the  latter  on  the  southern  bank  of  the 
river  (page  371).  The  year  had  been  a  most  unfortunate  one 
for  the  Confederates.  The  previous  winter  had  been  somewhat 
cheered  by  the  victory  of  Fredericksburg  and  the  hope  that  for- 
eign powers  would  interfere  in  their  behalf  and  put  an  end  to 
the  war;  but  the  winter  of  1863  came  almost  without  hope  and 
without  resources.  It  is  true  a  few  advantages  had  been 
gained,  but  they  had  been  more  than  balanced  by  losses. 
Chancellorsville  had  been  won  at  the  cost  of  Jackson's  life,  and 
had  been  followed  by  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg;  and  the  gain 
of  Chickamauga  had  been  wiped  out  by  the  disgrace  of  Chatta- 
nooga. The  Confederacy  had  been  cut  in  twain  on  the  line  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  little  could  be  done  to  prevent  the  division 
of  the  eastern  half. 

There  was  a  cry  of  scarcity  everywhere.  Most  of  the  able- 
bodied  men  were  in  the  army,  but  few  being  left  to  manufacture 
the  necessaries  of  life.  The  strict  blockade  of  the  ports  had 
nearly  stopped  all  trade  with  foreign  lands,  so  that  the  stores 
had  little  to  sell;  and  many  shopkeepers  who  had  goods  kept 
them  back  in  hope  of  getting  yet  higher  prices.  Paper  money 
was  plenty,  but  it  took  twenty-eight  Confederate  dollars  to  buy 
one  gold  dollar's  worth.  The  rich  had  become  poor,  and  the 
poor  had  become  paupers.     Society  was  completely  overturned, 


1864.]  CHRISTMAS  IN  RICHMOND.  429 

so  that  the  man  who  labored  with  his  hands  was  better  off  than 
the  most  scholarly  professional  man;  for  the  former  could  earn 
enough  to  buy  bread  and  clothes,  while  the  latter  often  went 
hungry  and  ragged.  The  only  really  happy  ones  were  the 
colored  people,  who  seldom  let  anything  worry  them. 

Christmas  in  Richmond  that  year  came  cold  and  raw,  with 
cutting  winds  and  skies  as  threatening  as  the  fortunes  of  the 
Confederacy.  There  was  little  to  make  people  joyful,  for  want 
showed  itself  at  every  board,  and  many  a  chair  was  empty. 
Even  an  ordinary  Christmas  dinner  for  a  dozen  persons  cost 
$200  to  $300.  Flour  was  worth  $125  to  $150  a  barrel,  and 
sugar  $5  to  $10  a  pound,  according  to  its  quality.  Turkeys, 
which  the  year  before  had  been  worth  $10  to  $12  apiece,  were 
very  scarce,  and  cost  $40  to  $50  apiece.  Apples  were  $80  a 
barrel;  beans,  $28  a  bushel;  cheese,  $7  a  pound;  butter,  $5.50 
a  pound;  and  coffee.  $11.50  a  pound.  A  boiled  ham  was  a 
luxury,  and  roast  beef  was  only  for  the  rich.  Many  were  grate- 
ful for  a  little  bacon  and  corn-bread,  and  delicate  women  went 
to  church  that  day  faint  with  hunger  who  had  never  known 
the  feeling  before. 

During  the  early  part  of  18G4  there  were  no  military  move- 
ments in  Virginia  excepting  some  cavalry  raids  undertaken  for 
the  purpose  of  releasing  the  Union  prisoners  in  Richmond, 
whose  condition  had  excited  much  pity  in  the  North.  In  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  the  United  States,  not  recognizing  the 
Confederate  States  as  a  government,  with  the  right  to  make 
war,  had  treated  prisoners  as  felons.  The  shooting  of  a  Union 
soldier  was  called  a  murder,  and  the  capture  of  a  United  States 
vessel  was  called  piracy.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  crew 
of  the  Savannah  were  thrown  into  prison  as  pirates,  and  it  was 
even  proposed  to  hang  them  as  such  (page  141).  But  the  bat- 
tle of  Bull  Run  threw  many  prisoners  into  the  hands  of  the 
Confederates,  and  their  threats  of  hanging  some  of  them  in  re- 
taliation forced  the  United  States  to  treat  them  as  prisoners  of 
war.  For  a  long  time  the  government,  determined  not  to  do 
anything  which  would  seem  to  recognize  the  right  of  the  Con- 
federates to  carry  on  war,  refused  to  exchange  any  prisoners; 
but  in  the  summer  of  1862  an  arrangement  was  made  by  which 
Confederate  prisoners  were  exchanged  for  Union  prisoners  of 
equal  rank,  man  for  man.     Under  this  agreement  many  thou- 


430  GRANT  IN  VIRGINIA.  [1864. 

sand  captives  on  both  sides  were  released  and  returned  to  their 
homes. 

Exchanges  went  on,  with  some  interruptions,  until  the  issu- 
ing of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  and  the  enrolling  of 
negro  soldiers  in  the  Union  army.  The  Confederate  authori- 
ties then  refused  to  exchange  colored  soldiers,  and  ordered  that 
every  white  officer  captured  in  command  of  black  soldiers 
should  be  put  to  death,  and  that  every  black  soldier  taken  in 
arms  should  be  given  up  to  the  authorities  of  the  State  where 
captured  to  be  dealt  with  according  to  law — that  is,  to  be  en- 
slaved again.  On  this  President  Lincoln  issued  another  proc- 
lamation declaring  that  "for  every  soldier  of  the  United  States 
killed  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  war,  a  rebel  soldier  shall  be 
executed;  and  for  every  one  enslaved  by  the  enemy  or  sold 
into  slavery,  a  rebel  soldier  shall  be  placed  at  hard  labor  on  the 


Camp  Chase. 

public  works."  This  action  of  the  United  States  government 
prevented  the  threatened  execution  of  prisoners,  but  the  Con- 
federates still  refused  to  exchange  the  black  soldiers  taken  by 
them.  This  put  an  end  to  the  exchange  of  all  prisoners,  for 
the  United  States  would  not  permit  any  difference  to  be  made 
in  the  treatment  of  its  soldiers,  whether  black  or  white.  After 
this  all  prisoners  were  kept  by  each  side,  and  so  it  happened 
that  tens  of  thousands  of  poor  captives  pined  in  prison-camps, 
and  that  great  numbers  died  from  disease,  bad  food,  and  ill- 
treatment. 

Prison-camps  were  built  by  both  parties  for  the  detention 
of  prisoners.  There  was  a  very  large  one  near  Chicago,  called 
Camp  Douglas,  to  which  most  of  the  Confederates  captured  at 
Fort  Donelson  and  Shiloh  were  sent.  Another  one  at  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  was  named  Camp  Chase.  It  was  surrounded  by  a 
strong  fence  sixteen  feet  high,  the  outside  of  which  with  the 


1864.]  TREATMENT  OF  PRISONERS.  431 

guard-houses  is  shown  in  the  picture.  On  the  inside  were  pro- 
vided barracks  for  the  prisoners,  so  that  none  of  them  were 
without  shelter. 

The  first  Union  prisoners  taken  by  the  Confederates  were 
confined  in  Kichmond  in  a  large  storehouse  belonging  to  a  Mr. 
Libby,  and  which  was  named  from  him  Libby  Prison.  When 
this  building  was  full  prisoners  were  confined  on  a  small  island 
in  the  James  Eiver,  called  Belle  Isle,  where  a  kind  of  camp  was 
made,  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  earth  and  by  ditches.  It  is  said 
that  the  prisoners  were  penned  up  there  like  sbeep,  without  any 
shelter  even  in  winter,  and  that  many  were  frozen  to  death. 
It  is  also  said  that  all  the  prisoners  were  given  poor  and  insuf- 
ficient food,  and  that  they  were  systematically  starved  by  the 
Confederate  authorities  so  as  to  make  them  unfit  for  further 
service.  Southern  writers  say,  on  the  contrary,  that  these 
stories  are  untrue:  that  the  prisoners  on  Belle  Isle  were  fur- 
nished with  tents  like  those  of  the  soldiers  that  guarded  them, 
and  that  the  food  furnished  to  them  and  to  those  in  Libby 
Prison  was  the  same  as  the  rations  of  their  soldiers  in  the  field. 
They  also  say  that  the  healthfulness  of  the  place  and  the  good 
care  taken  of  the  prisoners  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  out  of 
more  than  twenty  thousand  prisoners  confined  on  Belle  Isle, 
only  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  died  between  June,  1862,  and 
February,  1865,  or  about  five  each  month. 

But  whether  the  stories  of  the  cruel  treatment  of  Union  cap- 
tives in  Richmond  are  true  or  not,  they  were  generally  believed  at 
the  time  throughout  the  North,  and  in  the  early  part  of  1864  it 
was  determined  to  make  an  attempt  to  rescue  them.  The  first 
effort  was  made  in  the  early  part  of  February  by  about  fifteen 
hundred  cavalry  and  infantry  under  General  Wistar,  who  moved 
rapidly  up  the  Peninsula  to  the  Cbickahominy  River,  intending 
to  cross  it  and  go  into  Richmond;  but  the  Confederates  heard  of 
it  and  were  prepared  for  them  at  the  river,  and  the  expedition 
returned.  On  Sunday,  February  28,  General  Kilpatrick  crossed 
the  Rapidan  with  five  thousand  cavalry,  and  passing  Lee's  army, 
marched  rapidly  toward  Richmond.  After  several  sharp  fights, 
he  entered  the  outer  line  of  the  Richmond  fortifications  early 
on  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  March.  Here  he  halted  in  hope 
of  hearing  from  Colonel  Ulric  Dahlgren,  son  of  Admiral  Dahl- 
gren,  who  had  left  him  at  Spottsylvania  Court-House  with  the 


432  GRANT  ffl  VIRGINIA.  [1864. 

intention  of  passing  through  the  country  above  Richmond  and 
of  crossing  the  river  and  attacking  Richmond  from  the  south 
while  Kilpatrick  attacked  from  the  north  side.  Not  hearing 
the  sound  of  Dahlgren's  guns  and  finding  the  inner  fortifications 
too  strong  to  carry,  Kilpatrick  rode  away  toward  Mechanics- 
ville  and  bivouacked  for  the  night  about  six  miles  from  Ricn- 
mond.  But  the  Confederates  attacked  him  and  drove  him 
from  there,  and  he  crossed  the  Chickahominy  and  retreated 
down  the  Peninsula,  where  he  finally  met  a  force  sent  to  his 
aid  from  Fortress  Monroe. 

Colonel  Dahlgren  was  not  so  fortunate.  He  found  the  river 
too  dee^  to  ford,  and  so,  after  entering  the  outer  fortifications 
of  Richmond,  and  being  stopped,  as  Kilpatrick  had  been,  by 
the  stronger  inner  works,  turned  and  went  down  the  north 
side.  But  Kilpatrick's  appearance  had  roused  the  country,  and 
he  was  beset  by  home-guards  in  every  direction.  After  cross- 
ing the  Mattapony  River  he  was  attacked  by  a  body  of  militia, 
and  was  shot  dead  at  their  first  fire.  His  men  scattered  and 
some  reached  Kilpatrick,  but  about  one  hundred  of  them  were 
taken  prisoners. 

Southern  writers  say  that  papers  were  found  on  Dahlgren's 
body  showing  a  plot  to  free  the  Union  captives  in  Richmond, 
and  by  their  aid  to  burn  the  city  and  murder  President  Davis 
and  other  chief  men.  They  also  say  that  the  plot  was  proved 
by  the  evidence  of  prisoners  taken,  and  by  the  fact  that  a  large 
number  of  knives  and  slung-shots  were  found  among  the  pris- 
oners in  the  city,  who  had  thus  made  ready  to  give  their  aid. 
"A  mine  was  prepared  under  the  Libby  Prison;  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  gunpowder  was  put  into  it,  and  pains  were  taken 
to  inform  the  prisoners  that  any  attempt  at  escape  made  by 
them  would  be  effectually  defeated.  The  plan  succeeded  per- 
fectly. The  prisoners  were  awed  and  kept  cpiiet.  Dahlgren 
and  his  party  were  defeated  and  scattered.  The  danger  passed 
away,  and  in  a  few  weeks  the  gunpowder  was  removed." 

This  is  the  story  as  told  by  the  Confederate  writers.  Union 
writers  say,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  papers  said  to  have  been 
found  on  Colonel  Dahlgren's  body  were  forgeries  and  that  they 
were  made  up  by  the  Confederates  themselves  to  excuse  the 
barbarous  treatment  of  his  dead  body,  which  was  insulted  and 
buried  where  it  could  not  be  found  by  his  friends.     They  also 


1864.]  LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  GRANT.  433 

say  that  the  gunpowder  was  put  under  Libby  Prison  in  the 
night  of  March  1st,  and  could  not  therefore  have  been  done  on 
account  of  information  of  Dahlgren's  intentions  to  rescue  the 
captives,  for  Dahlgren  was  not  killed  until  the  evening  of 
March  3d. 

Thus,  while  the  Confederates  looked  upon  Colonel  Dahl- 
gren as  a  felon  and  treated  him  as  such,  his  friends  in  the  free 
States  believed  him  to  be  a  gallant  officer,  engaged  in  a  lawful 
expedition  in  which  he  did  not  transgress  any  of  the  rules  of 
warfare.  Though  only  twenty-one  years  of  age  when  he  met 
his  sad  fate,  he  had  already  won  fame  for  gallant  deeds.  In 
the  July  previous  he  had  been  wounded  so  badly  in  the  foot  that 
it  had  to  be  amputated,  yet  this  loss  did  not  prevent  him  from 
doing  what  he  believed  to  be  his  duty. 

After  the  fall  of  Vicksburg  it  had  been  proposed  to  offer  the 
command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  to  General  Grant,  whose 
military  genius  began  to  be  understood.  But  Grant  felt  that 
there  was  still  much  to  be  done  in  the  "West,  and  he  preferred 
to  remain  there,  where  he  was  well  known,  to  going  East,  where 
already  one  Western  general  (Pope)  had  so  signally  failed. 
After  the  close  of  the  Chattanooga  campaign,  however,  it  was 
felt  that  he  was  the  right  man  to  take  charge  of  the  most  im- 
portant army  of  the  Republic,  and  in  the  following  spring  he 
was  made  Lieutenant-General  of  all  the  armies  of  the  United 
States.  None  but  Washington  had  ever  held  this  high  posi- 
tion, for  General  Scott  had  been  Lieutenant-General  only  by 
brevet — that  is,  he  had  had  only  the  title,  but  not  the  pay 
belonging  to  the  rank. 

Grant  was  summoned  by  telegraph  to  Washington  to  re- 
ceive his  instructions.  He  was  formally  introduced  (March  9) 
to  President  Lincoln,  who  handed  him  his  commission,  in  the 
presence  of  the  members  of  the  Cabinet,  with  the  following 
words : 

"  General  Grant  :  The  nation's  appreciation  of  what  you  have  al- 
ready done,  and  its  reliance  upon  you  for  what  still  remains  to  be  done  in 
the  existing  great  struggle,  are  now  presented  with  this  commission,  con- 
stituting you  Lieutenant-General  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States. 
With  this  high  honor  devolves  upon  you  also  a  corresponding  responsi- 
bility. As  the  country  herein  trusts  you,  so,  under  God,  it  will  sustain 
you.  I  need  scarcely  add  that  with  what  I  here  speak  for  the  nation  goes 
my  own  hearty  personal  concurrence." 


434  QBANT  IN  TIBGINIA.  [1864 

To  this  General  Grant  replied : 

"Mr.  President:  I  accept  the  commission  with  gratitude  for  the 
high  honor  conferred.  With  the  aid  of  the  noble  armies  that  have  fought 
on  so  many  fields  for  our  common  country,  it  will  be  my  earnest  en- 
deavor not  to  disappoint  your  expectations.  I  feel  the  full  weight  of  the 
responsibilities  now  devolving  on  me,  and  I  know  that  if  they  are  met,  it 
will  be  due  to  those  armies,  and,  above  all,  to  the  favor  of  that  Provi- 
dence which  leads  both  nations  and  men." 

This  rank  made  Grant  second  only  to  the  President,  who, 
under  the  Constitution,  is  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and 
navy,  and  the  superior  of  Major-General  Halleck,  then  acting 
as  general-in-chief  of  the  army.  Halleck  was  made  chief -of- 
staff  of  the  army,  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  War 
and  of  the  Lieutenant- General.  To  General  Sherman  was 
given  Grant's  former  place,  the  command  of  all  the  forces  be- 
tween the  Alleghany  Mountains  and  the  Mississippi,  while  to 
McPherson  was  assigned  Sherman's  place,  the  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  Tennessee. 

While  Grant  thus  took  the  direction  of  all  the  armies  in  the 
field,  he  made  his  headquarters  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
of  which  General  Meade  still  held  the  immediate  command. 
The  Lieutenant-General  at  once  made  a  plan  of  campaign,  and 
prepared  for  a  grand  movement  against  the  enemy  both  in  the 
East  and  the  West.  His  plan  was  to  give  up  all  small  expedi- 
tions, and  to  strike  at  the  two  great  Confederate  armies — that 
of  Lee  on  the  Eapidan,  and  that  of  Johnston  at  Dalton, 
Georgia.  With  the  destruction  of  these  two  armies  he  felt  that 
the  war  must  come  to  an  end.  The  movements  against  them 
before  had  failed  largely  because  they  had  been  made  at  differ- 
ent times,  thus  giving  the  enemy  the  chance  of  sending  troops 
from  one  to  the  other,  reinforcing  the  army  which  was  pressed 
hardest  by  the  Union  troops.  In  accordance  with  his  new  plan, 
Grant  ordered  Sherman  to  move  against  Johnston  and  break 
up  his  army,  and  then  to  get  into  the  enemy's  country  as  far 
as  possible  and  do  all  the  damage  he  could  to  property  that 
would  aid  the  enemy  to  keep  up  the  war.  How  General  Sher- 
man carried  out  these  orders  will  be  shown  hereafter.  We 
must  now  see  what  Grant  did  in  his  first  campaign  in  Virginia. 

General  Lee's  army,  which  then  numbered  about  sixty-five 
thousand  men,  was  divided  into  three  corps,  under  command 


1864.]  THE  WILDERNESS.  435 

of  Ewell,  Hill,  and  Longstreet.  It  was  so  strongly  fortified  in 
its  position,  extending  twenty  miles  along  the  south  bank  of 
the  Rapidan,  that  Grant  had  to  move  either  up  or  down  the 
river  to  cross.  He  decided  to  move  down,  and  during  the  night 
of  May  3d  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  left  its  winter  quarters 
and  marched  for  the  lower  fords  of  the  Rapidan.  The  Union 
army  had  been  formed  also  into  three  corps:  the  Second 
Corps,  under  Hancock;  the  Fifth  Corps,  under  Warren;  and 
the  Sixth  Corps,  under  Sedgwick.  A  fourth  corps,  called  the 
Ninth,  under  Burnside,  was  to  act  for  a  time  independently  of 
Meade.  All  the  cavalry  was  formed  into  a  corps  by  itself, 
under  command  of  Sheridan.  The  whole  together  numbered 
one  hundred  and  forty  thousand  men,  or  more  than  twice  as 
many  as  Lee  had.  On  the  same  clay  that  Meade  began  his 
march,  General  Butler,  who  was  at  Fortress  Monroe,  was 
ordered  to  move  toward  Richmond,  with  about  thirty  thousand 
men,  on  the  south  side  of  the  James  River. 

The  Rapidan  was  crossed  without  any  interruption  from  the 
Confederates,  and  at  night  of  May  4th  Grant  and  Meade  had 
their  headquarters  at  the  Old  Wilderness  Tavern,  a  roadside 
inn  near  the  centre  of  the  Wilderness,  noted  as  the  scene  of  the 
battle  of  Chancellorsville.  Grant,  not  expecting  an  attack 
from  Lee,  intended  to  march  out  of  the  Wilderness  the  next 
day,  and  if  possible  get  between  Lee  and  Richmond.  But  Lee, 
who  had  been  closely  watching  the  movements  of  his  enemy, 
had  at  once  put  his  troops  in  motion,  and  by  dark  had  taken  a 
position  within  three  miles  of  Grant's  headquarters.  The  next 
morning  (May  5)  Warren  was  about  to  move,  when  he  was  at- 
tacked by  Ewell.  Grant  and  Meade  thought  at  first  that  Lee 
was  doing  this  to  cover  his  retreat  toward  Richmond,  but  they 
soon  found  out  that  it  was  a  real  attack.  Sedgwick  was  sent 
to  aid  Warren,  and  Hancock,  who  was  marching  down  the 
Brock  Road,  was  recalled,  and  ordered  to  attack  Hill.  The 
battle  raged  until  night  fell  in  the  forest,  when  both  sides  drew 
back  and  began  to  fortify  their  positions.  They  were  so  near 
that  the  woods  rang  with  the  sound  of  each  other's  axes,  as 
they  felled  trees  for  breastworks  and  abatis,  but  not  a  man 
could  be  seen  on  either  side. 

On  the  morning  of  May  6th  the  two  armies  lay  nearly  as 
shown  in  the  map.     Hancock  still  lay  in  front  of  Hill,  and 


436 


GRANT  IN  VIRGINIA. 


[1864. 


Burnside,  who  had  come  up  with  the  Ninth  Corps,  was  placed 
between  him  and  Warren.  The  woods  were  so  dense  that  can- 
non were  of  no  use  and  cavalry  could  do  little  more  than  look 
on.  The  fighting  had  to  be  done  by  the  infantry,  who  hunted 
their  foes  in  the  thicket  much  as  savage  Indians  were  wont  to 
do  in  the  colonial  days.  Grant,  knowing  that  nothing  could 
be  done  but  hard  fighting,  ordered  an  attack  to  be  made  along 

the  whole  line  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing; but  Lee  was 
before  him,  and  at- 
tacked ^Sedgwick 
about  fifteen  min- 
utes earlier.  But 
this  was  meant  only 
for  a  feint,  the 
Confederate  general 
meaning  to  make 
the  real  attack  on 
Grant's  left.  Long- 
street,  however,  did 
not  come  up  in  time, 
and  so  it  happened 
that  Hancock  at- 
tacked Hill  in  the 
morning,  and  drove 
him  back  a  mile  and 
a  half,  nearly  to 
Lee's  headquarters. 
The  situation  was 
a  critical  one  for  the 
Confederates.  Lee 
dashed  among  the  fugitives  and  called  on  the  men  to  rally.  At 
this  time  Longstreet  came  up,  and  seeing  how  things  stood, 
pushed  forward  to  win  back  the  lost  ground.  The  soldiers,  see- 
ing that  General  Lee  meant  to  advance  with  them,  earnestly 
begged  him  to  go  to  the  rear,  where  his  life  would  be  less  ex- 
posed, and  promised  that  they  would  soon  right  things.  Yield- 
ing to  their  fears,  Lee  withdrew,  and  Longstreet's  men  charged 
with  such  a  will  that  they  carried  everything  before  them.    The 


Battle  of  the  Wilderness. 


1864.]  BATTLE  OF  TEE  WILDERNESS.  437 

Union  line  was  forced  back,  Wadsworth  was  killed,  and  Han- 
cock lost  nearly  all  he  had  gained. 

While  the  Confederates  were  pushing  on,  Longstreet  went 
with  his  staff  to  the  front  to  see  how  the  battle  was  going.  As 
he  rode  out  of  the  woods  he  suddenly  came  upon  a  body  of  his 
own  men,  who,  supposing  the  group  to  be  Union  cavalry,  fired 
upon  them,  just  as  Stonewall  Jackson  had  been  fired  on  under 
like  circumstances  in  another  part  of  the  same  Wilderness. 
Longstreet  shouted  to  them  in  vain  to  cease  firing,  and  the  next 
moment  General  Jenkins  fell  dead  from  his  saddle  and  Long- 
street  himself  received  a  ball  through  the  neck  and  shoulder. 
The  General  was  carried  to  the  rear,  it  was  feared  mortally 
wounded,  and  Lee  himself  took  charge  of  that  part  of  the  field. 
He  made  another  attack  in  the  afternoon  on  Hancock,  who  had 
strengthened  his  front  with  a  breastwork  of  trees.  The  under- 
brush in  the  forest  caught  fire,  and  the  wind  drove  the  flames 
and  smoke  directly  in  the  eyes  of  the  Union  troops.  The  Con- 
federates, taking  advantage  of  this,  rushed  over  the  breastwork, 
but  after  a  hard  fight  they  were  driven  back,  and  the  battle 
ceased  there  for  the  day.  But  at  the  other  end  of  the  line,  on 
Grant's  right,  the  Confederates  made  an  attack  just  at  night- 
fall and  captured  Generals  Seymour  and  Shaler  and  about 
three  thousand  men,  with  scarcely  any  loss  to  themselves. 

The  terrible  two  days'  battle  in  the  woods,  where  there  was 
scarcely  air  enough  to  drive  away  the  smoke,  had  nearly  ex- 
hausted both  sides.  The  fire  spread  in  the  underbrush,  and 
added  to  the  discomfort  of  the  hot  and  stifling  night.  The 
ground,  some  parts  of  which  had  been  fought  over  several  times, 
was  strewn  with  the  dead  and  wounded,  friend  and  foe  lying 
side  by  side.  The  battle  had  been  a  drawn  one,  for  neither  side 
could  claim  any  advantage  over  the  other.  The  Confederates, 
however,  had  captured  about  five  thousand  prisoners,  making 
Grant's  entire  loss  nearly  twenty  thousand,  or  twice  as  many  as 
that  of  Lee. 

The  next  day  passed  with  scarcely  any  fighting,  though  the 
two  armies  still  held  their  positions.  During  the  night  (May  7) 
Grant,  still  determined  to  get  between  Lee  and  Richmond, 
marched  for  Spottsylvania  Court-House;  but  Lee,  discovering 
the  movement,  started  in  the  same  direction,  and  got  there  in 
time  to  intrench  himself  along  the  heights.     When  Warren's 


438 


GRANT  IN  VIRGINIA. 


[1864, 


advance  arrived  it  was  received  with  a  heavy  cannon  and  mus- 
ketry fire.  The  Union  line  wavered  and  fell  back,  and  General 
Warren  had  great  difficulty  in  keeping  the  men  in  order. 
Sedgwick  with  part  of  his  corps  came  up,  and  amid  almost  con- 
tinual skirmishing  the  two  sides  prepared  for  another  battle. 
By  Monday  (May  9)  the  whole  Union  army  was  in  line  in  front 
of  the  Spottsylvania  ridge  on  which  Lee  was  posted.  While 
the  lines  were  forming  the  sharpshooters  were  busy  on  both 
sides.  The  Confederate  riflemen,  perched  in  high  forest  trees, 
where  they  were  hidden  among  the  leaves,  played  havoc  along 
the  Union  line,  picking  off  the  officers  wherever  they  showed 
themselves.  About  the  middle  of  the  day  General  Sedgwick, 
the  loved  commander  of  the  Sixth  Corps,  walked  out  with 
_^_  Colonel    McMahon,    his 

=gg|_    :^^s^  W^EL  chief    of    staff,    to    the 

s^9k  -;jjj|§i  jffil  SlIIZIZl---       front  of  the  line,  where 

some  of  his  men  were 
placing  a  battery.  The 
bullets  of  the  sharpshoot- 
ers hummed  like  bees  in 
the  air,  and  made  the 
soldiers  dodge  and  duck 
their  heads  behind  the 
breastwork  which  had 
been  thrown  up.  The 
General  smiled  as  he  saw 
this,  and  said: 

"Pooh!  pooh!  men, 
who  ever  heard  of  a  soldier  dodging  a  bullet!  Why,  they 
couldn't  hit  an  elephant  at  that  distance!" 

Some  of  the  men  laughed  at  this,  and  the  General  was  still 
smiling,  when  Colonel  McMahon  heard  the  buzz  of  a  bullet 
which  seemed  to  burst  close  beside  him. 

"That  must  have  been  an  explosive  bullet,  General,"  he 
said.  There  was  no  answer,  and  turning  he  was  just  in  time  to 
catch  General  Sedgwick  in  his  arms  as  he  fell.  The  ball  had 
struck  him  just  under  the  left  eye,  and  passed  out  of  the  back 
of  the  head.     He  never  spoke  again. 

Sedgwick's  death  was  greatly  lamented  by  his  men,  with 
wiioni  he  was  a  great  favorite.     His  loss,  too,  was  a  severe  one 


Spottsylvania  Court-House. 


1864.] 


BATTLE  OF  SPOTTSYLVAMA.. 


439 


to  the  Union  cause,  for  he  was  a  fine  soldier  and  one  who  could 
always  be  depended  upon  to  do  his  duty.  He  was  succeeded  in 
command  of  the  Sixth  Corps  by  General  H.  G.  Wright. 

The  10th  of  May  was  spent  in  artillery-firing  and  in  sharp 
fighting,  but  without  any  gain  to  either  side.  General  Grant, 
however,  thought  he  saw  a  chance  for  success,  and  early  the 
next  morning  he  sent  to  Washington  a  despatch,  saying:  "We 
have  now  ended  the  sixth  day  of  very  hard  fighting.  The  re- 
sult to  this  time  is  much  in  our  favor.  ...  I  propose  to 
fight  it  out  on  this  line  if  it  takes  all  summer."  But  the  Con- 
federates also  considered  that  the  result  up  to  that  time  was  in 
their  favor,  for  the  at- 
tacks on  their  position 
had  been  thus  far  re- 
pulsed. 

There  was  some 
skirmishing  during  the 
morning  of  the  11th,  but 
in  the  afternoon  rain  be- 
gan to  fall,  and  there 
was  a  lull  in  the  fight- 
ing. Soon  after  midnight 
Hancock's  corps  was 
moved  to  a  place  oppo- 
site the  centre  of  the 
Confederate  line,  shown 
near  the   middle  of  the 


John  Sedgwick. 


map  (page  440),  where  Grant  thought  there  was  a  weak  point. 
The  night  was  so  dark  that  the  troops  had  to  march  through 
the  woods  by  the  aid  of  the  compass.  At  dawn,  under  cover 
of  a  dense  fog,  the  men  marched  toward  the  Confederate 
works.  Silently  they  moved  over  the  broken  ground  and 
through  the  thick  woods  until  they  were  half  up  the  slope. 
Then,  with  a  wild  cheer,  they  dashed  forward  through  the 
abatis,  and  the  next  minute  were  over  the  intrenchments.  The 
Confederates,  who  were  breakfasting,  were  taken  by  surprise 
and,  though  they  fought  desperately  with  bayonets  and  clubbed 
muskets,  soon  overpowered.  General  Edward  Johnson,  of 
Ewell's  Corps,  was  taken  prisoner  with  nearly  his  whole  com- 
mand, about  three  thousand  men,  and  thirty  cannons. 


440 


GRANT  IN  VIRGINIA. 


[1864. 


Among  the  prisoners  was  General  George  H.  Stewart,  of 
Maryland,  who  had  been  an  old  army  friend  of  Hancock's. 
"When  he  was  taken  to  the  rear,  Hancock  cordially  extended  his 
hand  to  him,  saying,  "How  are  you,  Stewart?" 

"I  am  General  Stewart,"  replied  the  prisoner  haughtily, 
"  of  the  Confederate  army,  and  under  the  circumstances  I  de- 
cline to  take  your  hand." 

"And  under  any  other  circumstance,  General,"  replied 
Hancock,  "I  should  not  have  offered  it." 


Battle  of  Spottsylvania  Court-House. 

Hancock,  though  he  did  not  know  it  at  the  time,  had  nearly 
cut  the  Confederate  army  in  two  by  his  capture  of  this  posi- 
tion. General  Lee  saw  the  peril  at  once,  and  fresh  troops  were 
quickly  moved  up  from  the  right  and  the  left  to  repel  the  at- 
tack. Hancock's  men  pushed  on  through  the  woods  toward 
Spottsylvania  Court-House  nearly  a  mile,  when  they  were  stop- 
ped by  a  second  line,  from  which  they  were  greeted  with  a  ter- 
rible hail  of  deadly  missiles.     After  hard  fighting  the  Union 


1864.]  TERRIBLE  MUSKETRY  FIRE.  441 

men  were  forced  back  to  the  works  which  they  had  captured. 
The  Confederates,  heavily  reinforced,  tried  many  times  to  re- 
capture the  intrenchments.  Eegardless  of  the  rain,  which  fell 
all  the  afternoon,  they  attacked  again  and  again,  struggling 
hand  to  hand  with  the  energy  of  despair,  and  not  ceasing  their 
efforts  until  near  midnight.  Meanwhile,  in  order  to  keep  the 
Confederates  from  sending  troops  against  Hancock,  Grant  had 
ordered  an  attack  along  the  whole  line.  Many  charges  were 
made,  with  great  slaughter  on  both  sides,  but  with  little  gain 
on  either  side.  Hancock  still  held  what  he  had  won,  but  the 
Confederates  had  another  stronger  line  behind  it. 

During  this  battle,  which  was  one  of  the  bloodiest  of  the 
war,  about  ten  thousand  men  having  fallen  on  each  side,  oc- 
curred one  of  the  heaviest  musketry  fires  ever  known.  The 
space  in  front  of  Hancock,  where  the  hardest  fighting  took 
place,  was  covered  with  large  trees,  Avhich  were  so  cut  and  scar- 
red by  bullets  that  at  least  half  of  them  were  killed.  In  many 
cases  large  trunks  were  cut  entirely  in  two  by  musket  balls.  In 
the  War  Department,  Washington,  is  shown  part  of  an  oak 
tree  nearly  two  feet  thick  which  was  thus  cut  down. 

During  these  battles  the  troops  were  changed  many  times 
from  place  to  place  along  the  lines.  The  first  position  held  is 
shown  in  the  upper  part  of  the  map,  and  Hancock's  position  in 
the  battle  of  the  12th  near  the  middle.  After  that  battle  nearly 
a  week  was  spent  in  skirmishing,  cutting  roads  in  the  woods, 
and  in  searching  for  a  weak  place  in  the  Confederate  line.  The 
corps  were  gradually  moved  round  toward  the  left  until  they 
came  into  the  second  position  shown  in  the  map.  But  wherever 
an  attack  was  made  the  enemy  were  found  in  force,  and  at  last 
Grant,  finding  that  Lee's  position  could  not  be  taken,  deter- 
mined to  march  round  him  again.  During  this  time  Grant 
received  large  reinforcements  from  Washington,  fully  making 
up  all  his  losses.  On  the  night  of  May  21st  Grant  left  the 
position  before  Spottsylvania,  and  after  a  two  days'  march 
reached  the  North  Anna  River;  but  Lee  had  suspected  his 
design,  and  put  his  army  in  motion  to  head  him  off  again,  and 
when  the  Union  troops  reached  the  North  Anna  their  old 
enemy  was  still  in  front  of  them  on  the  opposite  bank.  Part 
of  the  army  succeeded  in  crossing,  but  Lee  was  found  too 
strongly  posted  to  be  attacked  with  success,  and  Grant  with- 
drew his  troops  and  continued  his  march  southward. 


CHAPTER   XXXVI. 
GRANT  AND  LEE. 

Butler  at  Bermuda  Hundred.— Beauregard  Attacks  Him.— Bottled  Up.— Crook's  Raid.— 
Morgan  Defeats  averill.— Breckinridge  Defeats  Sigel,— Battle  of  Piedmont.— 
Hunter  in  West  Virginia.— Sheridan  and  Stuart.— Battle  at  Yellow  Tavern.— Death 
of  Stuart.— Lee  at  Cold  Harbor.— Cavalry  Fight.— Battle  of  Cold  Harbor.— Grant's 
Change  of  Base.— Terrible  Slaughter.— The  Army  Crosses  the  James.— Petersburg 
Attacked.— Early  Crosses  the  Potomac— Battle  of  the  Monocacy.— Baltimore  Ex- 
cited.—Capture  of  General  Franklin.— His  Escape.— Early  Attacks  Washington.— 
He  is  DRrvEN  Back  to  Virginia.— Defeat  of  Crook.— Confederate  Cavalry  in  Penn- 
sylvania.—Chambersburg  Burned.— Sheridan  in  Command.— Battle  of Opequan  Creek. 
—Fisher's  Hill.— Cedar  Creek— Sheridan's  Ride.— The  Petersburg  Mine— Hancock's 
Fight.— The  Weldon  Railroad.— Dutch  Gap  Canal. 

WHILE  Grant  is  moving  toward  the  old  battle-grounds  on 
the  Chickahominy,  let  us  leave  him  a  short  time  to  see 
what  has  taken  place  elsewhere  in  Virginia.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  General  Butler  had  advanced  from  Fortress  Monroe 
toward  Richmond  on  the  same  day  that  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac crossed  the  Rapidan  (page  435).  His  army,  thirty  thou- 
sand strong,  went  up  the  James  River  in  transports  and  landed 
at  City  Point  and  Bermuda  Hundred,  about  twenty  miles 
south  of  Richmond.  From  there  he  moved  against  the  Rich- 
mond and  Petersburg  Railroad,  and  after  some  fighting  de- 
stroyed part  of  it.  He  might  have  captured  Petersburg,  but 
misled  by  false  reports  that  Lee  had  been  defeated  and  was  re- 
treating toward  Richmond,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  move 
northward  to  aid  Grant  in  taking  that  place.  He  drove  back 
the  Confederates  and  took  part  of  the  outer  defences  of  Fort 
Darling  at  Drury's  Bluff  on  the  James  River. 

As  soon  as  Butler's  movement  toward  Richmond  was  known, 
General  Beauregard  had  been  called  from  Charleston  with  all 
the  troops  he  could  bring.  On  the  morning  of  the  16th,  dur- 
ing a  dense  fog,  Beauregard  attacked  Butler,  and  after  a  hard 
fight,  in  which  he  lost  three  thousand  and  Butler  four  thousand 
men,  the  latter  was  forced  back  to  Bermuda  Hundred.  Beaure- 
gard threw  up  a  line  of  earthworks  in  front  of  Butler,  who 
thus  found  himself  "  bottled  up,"  as  he  himself  said,  he  being 
unable  to  move  either  way.  This  enabled  Beauregard  to  send 
most  of  his  troops  to  the  aid  of  Lee, 


1864] 


BATTLE  OF  PIEDMONT. 


443 


Besides  Butler's  movement,  Grant's  plan  of  campaign  had 
included  two  other  movements:  one  under  General  Crook  from 
Charleston,  in  West  Virginia,  up  the  valley  of  the  Kanawha 
Kiver,  and  another,  under  General  Sigel,  from  Winchester  up 
the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Crook  divided  his  force,  sending 
General  Averill  with  two  thousand  cavalry  to  destroy  the  works 
at  the  lead  mines  near  Wytheville,  and  going  himself  with  six 
thousand  infantry  to  destroy  the  Virginia  and  Tennessee  Bail- 
road.  Averill  was  defeated  by  John  Morgan,  and  Crook,  find- 
ing the  Confederates  too  strong  for  him,  had  to  retreat.  Sigel 
moved  up  the  Shenandoah  with  about  ten  thousand  men  to 
Newmarket,  where  he  was  met  by  General  Breckinridge  and 
defeated  (May  15),  with  the 
loss  of  seven  hundred  men 
and  six  guns.  Sigel's  com- 
mand was  then  given  to 
General  Hunter,  who  was 
ordered  to  move  toward 
Staunton  and  destroy  the 
railroad.  Breckinridge  hav- 
ing been  called  toward  Eich- 
mond  to  aid  Lee,  had  weak- 
ened the  Confederates,  so 
that  when  Hunter  met  them 
at  Piedmont  (June  5)  he  de- 
feated them  badly,  taking 
fifteen  hundred  prisoners 
and  three  guns.  He  was  joined  at  Staunton  by  Crook  and 
Averill,  and  with  twenty  thousand  men  marched  toward  Lynch- 
burg. But  Lee  sent  troops  there,  and  Hunter,  finding  the 
place  too  strong  to  take,  had  to  retreat.  Fearful  of  being  cut 
off  by  the  Confederates,  he  concluded  to  return  through  West 
Virginia.  He  was  almost  out  of  provisions,  and  having  to  pass 
through  a  country  which  had  been  nearly  stripped  of  food,  his 
men  suffered  greatly,  but  he  saved  his  army.  This  retreat  was 
an  unfortunate  one,  for  it  left  the  Shenandoah  Valley  open  to 
the  Confederates.  How  they  improved  their  opportunity  to 
cross  the  Potomac  again  will  be  shown  hereafter. 

When  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  arrived  before  Spottsyl- 
yania,  Grant  sent  Sheridan  with  a  large  force  of  cavalry  to  cut 


Benjamin  F.  Butler. 


444  Q&ANT  AND  LBR  [1864. 

the  railroads  between  Lee  and  Richmond.  Sheridan  moved 
first  toward  Fredericksburg  to  deceive  the  enemy,  but  soon 
turned  around  to  the  right  of  the  Confederate  army.  The 
roads  were  dry,  and  the  long  clouds  of  dust  soon  told  Stuart 
what  was  going  on,  and  he  sent  some  cavalry  after  the  invaders. 
But  Sheridan  kept  him  off,  and  moving  rapidly  destroyed  many 
miles  of  railway,  with  locomotives  and  trains  of  cars.  He  also 
recaptured  four  hundred  Union  prisoners  on  their  way  to  Rich- 
mond from  the  battle-field  of  the  Wilderness.  He  then  rode 
quickly  on  toward  Richmond,  arriving  on  the  11th  of  May  at  a 
place  called  Yellow  Tavern,  a  few  miles  north  of  that  city. 
There  he  was  met  by  Stuart,  who  by  hard  riding  had  got  be- 
tween him  and  Richmond.  Sheridan  attacked  at  once,  and 
after  a  hard  fight  defeated  the  Confederates  and  drove  them 
from  the  field.  Stuart  fought  with  his  usual  reckless  bravery, 
and  in  a  desperate  charge  at  the  head  of  his  men  was  mortally 
wounded.  He  was  taken  to  Richmond,  where,  though  he  re- 
ceived the  tenderest  care,  he  died  the  next  day.  Among  his 
last  words  were:  "I  am  resigned,  if  it  be  God's  will,  but  I 
would  like  to  see  my  wife.  But  God's  will  be  done."  Several 
times,  as  death  was  drawing  near,  he  roused  up  and  asked  if 
she  had  come.  Unfortunately,  she  was  away  in  the  country  at 
the  time,  and  did  not  arrive  until  it  was  too  late.  And  so 
the  brave  man  passed  away,  as  many  another  soldier  before  him 
had  done,  cheered  by  the  presence  of  neither  wife  nor  child. 
His  loss  was  a  sore  one  tothe  Confederates,  second  only  to  that 
of  Stonewall  Jackson,  and  the  memory  of  the  rollicking  Jeb 
Stuart,  ever  ready  for  fight  or  frolic,  is  still  green  in  many  a 
Virginia  household. 

Sheridan,  emboldened  by  his  success,  made  a  dash  on  the 
defences  of  Richmond.  He  passed  the  first  line  and  took  a 
hundred  prisoners,  but  was  repulsed  at  the  second,  and  crossing 
the  Chickahominy  after  some  fighting,  rejoined  Grant  (May  25). 

We  left  Grant  moving  southward  from  the  North  Anna 
River,  where  he  had  found  Lee  too  strongly  posted  to  be 
attacked.  The  Confederates  marched  at  the  same  time  to  head 
him  off  again  from  Richmond,  and  when  Grant  reached  the 
Chickahominy  River  near  where  the  battle  of  Gaines's  Mills  had 
been  fought  by  McClellan  in  1862  (page  266),  Lee  was  there 
before  him.     Grant  felt  that  it  would  be  useless  to  attack  Lee 


1864.] 


BATTLE  OF  COLD  HARBOR. 


445 


in  front,  where  he  was  strongly  fortified,  and  made  up  his  mind 
to  march  round  Lee's  right  toward  Cold  Harbor*  and  cross  the 
Chickahominy.  Cold  Harbor  was  taken  by  Sheridan,  after  a 
sharp  cavalry  fight  (May  31).  The  next  morning  the  Confed- 
erates tried  to  win  it  back,  but  Sheridan's  men  held  it  until  the 
Sixth  Corps  came  to  their  aid.  General  W.  F.  Smith,  with 
sixteen  thousand  men  whom  Grant  had  withdrawn  from  But- 
ler's army  at  Bermuda  Hundred,  formed  on  the  right  of  the 
Sixth  Corps.  At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  June  1st  the 
Union  troops  attacked,  but  Lee  had  also  sent  reinforcements, 
and  they  were  met  by  a  heavy  fire.  At  least  two  thousand  men 
were  lost  in  the  struggle, 
but  the  first  line  of  the  Con- 
federate works  was  won  with 
six  hundred  prisoners.  The 
second  line  was  attacked  but 
the  Confederates  repulsed 
the  Union  troops,  who  fell 
back  and  held  the  first  line. 
There  was  little  rest  that 
night,  for  the  Confederates 
kept  up  an  almost  continual 
fire,  from  which  some  of  the 
Union  men  sheltered  them- 
selves by  building  bullet- 
proofs  in  the  woods;  but  the 
held  Cold  Harbor  and  thus 
hominy. 

The  next  day  was  spent  in  getting  the  troops  into  position 
to  force  their  way  across  the  river.  The  corps  were  placed  as 
shown  in  the  map,  Hancock  being  on  the  left  nearest  to  the 
Chickahominy.  Orders  were  given  for  an  attack  at  half-past 
four  o'clock  in  the  morning  (June  3).  At  dawn  every  man  was 
up,  and  in  a  few  minutes  after  the  appointed  time  the  assault 
was  made  along  the  whole  six  miles  of  front.  But  the  Confed- 
erates.were  on  the  alert,  and  the  storming  columns  were  received 

*  This  is  sometimes  called  Cool  Arbor,  and  it  is  so  spelled  in  the  ac- 
companying map,  but  most  of  the  books  give  it  as  in  the  text.  It  is  said  to 
be  a  common  name  for  places  along  roads  in  England  where  shelter  with- 
out fire  is  given. 


A  Bullet-Proof. 

result  was  that  the  Union  men 
secured  the  way  to  the  Chicka- 


446 


GRANT  AND  LEE. 


[1864. 


with  a  fire  which  caused  a  fearful  loss  in  the  Union  ranks.  The 
battle  was  soon  decided;  the  Confederate  works  were  found  too 
strong  to  carry,  and  the  Union  men  were  repulsed  at  every 
point  with  great  slaughter.  Grant's  loss  was  more  than  thir- 
teen thousand,  while  that  of  the  Confederates,  who  fought  be- 
hind their  earthworks,  was  scarcely  as  many  hundred.  Later 
in  the  day  an  order  was  given  for  another  assault,  but  the  men, 
appalled  at  the  fate  of  their  comrades,  whose  bodies  strewed 
the  field  before  them,  refused  to  move. 

Grant  then  began  to  throw  up  earthworks  and  to  dig 
trenches  to  lay  siege  to  Lee's  position;  and  for  more  than  a 
week  the  two  armies  lay  opposite  each  other,  the  trenches  being 
so  near  together  that  many  men  were  picked  off  by  riflemen. 


Battle  of  Cold  Harbor, 


But  the  intrenching  finally  ceased,  and  Grant  made  up  his 
mind  to  take  his  army  to  the  south  side  of  the  James  Eiver. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  he  had  announced  his  intention  at 
the  opening  of  the  campaign  to  fight  it  out  on  that  line  if  it 
took  all  summer.  By  this  he  meant  the  overland  route,  or  a 
line  by  which  he  could  advance  toward  Bichmond,  driving  Lee 
before  him,  and  always  keeping  his  army  between  Lee  and 
"Washington.  He  had  fought  it  out  on  that  line  but  little  more 
than  a  month,  yet  such  had  been  the  skill  of  the  Confederate 
commander  that  his  antagonist  was  now  forced  to  adopt  an 
entirely  different  line  of  operations.  It  must  be  confessed  that 
the  outlook  at  this  time  was  unfavorable  for  the  success  of  the 
Union  arms.  Grant  had  not  thus  far  equalled  the  expectations 
of  the  government  or  of  the  people.     In  those  terrible  thirty 


1864]  GRANT  ACROSS  THE  JAMES.  447 

days  he  had  lost  sixty  thousand  men,  or  as  many  as  the  whole 
of  Lee's  army,  while  the  loss  of  the  latter  had  not  been  more 
than  one  third  as  many.  Lee's  army  still  remained  to  defend 
Richmond,  while  the  Union  army,  after  all  this  immense  labor 
and  loss,  had  only  reached  a  position  which  might  have  been 
easily  won  without  loss  if  the  army  had  been  sent  by  water 
from  Washington  as  McClellan's  army  had  been  in  18G2.  We 
have  not  yet  been  given  the  whole  history  of  those  trying  times, 
but  when  the  records  are  published  people  may  be  surprised  to 
know  how  near  the  President  and  his  advisers  were  to  despair. 
In  judging  General  Grant,  however,  we  must  always  bear  in 
mind  that  his  object  was  the  destruction  of  Lee's  army  and  not 
alone  the  capture  of  Richmond. 

On  the  12th  of  June  the  army  was  ready  to  move  again. 
Warren  crossed  the  Chickahominy  and  made  believe  march 
toward  Richmond,  when  Lee,  thinking  it  to  be  a  real  move- 
ment, withdrew  into  the  defences  of  the  city.  The  army  then 
marched  for  the  James  River,  where  part  was  ferried  over  and 
part  crossed  on  a  pontoon  bridge  wide  enough  for  twelve  men 
to  march  abreast.  General  Smith,  who  meanwhile  had  been 
sent  back  by  water  to  Butler  at  Bermuda  Hundred,  was  ordered 
to  take  Petersburg,  if  possible.  This  city,  a  place  of  eighteen 
thousand  inhabitants,  lies  twenty-two  miles  south  of  Richmond, 
on  the  Appomattox  River,  which  flows  into  the  James  below 
Richmond  (see  map,  page  455).  It  is  the  meeting  place  of 
several  railroads  and  other  roads,  and  it  Avas  at  the  time  one  of 
the  most  important  places  in  the  line  of  defence  around  Rich- 
mond. Smith  attacked  Petersburg  (June  14)  and  succeeded  in 
taking  part  of  the  defences,  capturing  some  guns  and  prisoners. 
He  ceased  his  operations  at  nightfall,  and  Lee  strongly  rein- 
forced the  garrison.  The  rest  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
came  up,  and  though  every  effort  was  made  to  take  the  place, 
the  assault  ended  in  failure.  Grant  lost  in  four  days  nearly  ten 
thousand  men,  and  he  was  then  forced  to  lay  siege  to  Peters- 
burg, which  held  out  against  him  for  ten  long  months. 

When  General  Hunter  left  the  Shenandoah  Valley  and  re- 
treated into  West  Virginia,  he  left  the  road  to  Washington 
open  once  more  to  the  Confederates.  Lee,  seeing  the  oppor- 
tunity, sent  General  Early  with  about  twelve  thousand  men  to 
threaten  Washington,  in  hope  that  it  would  force  Grant  to  give 


448 


GRANT  AND  LEE. 


[1864. 


up  the  siege  of  Petersburg.  Early  marched  rapidly  down  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  and  driving  Sigel  before  him  crossed  the 
Potomac  into  Maryland  and  reached  Frederick  (July  7),  from 
which  place  he  could  move  either  against  Baltimore  or  Washing- 
ton. As  soon  as  Grant  heard  of  this,  he  sent  the  Sixth  Corj)s 
by  water  to  Washington,  and  the  Nineteenth  Corps,  which  had 
just  arrived  from  New  Orleans,  after  the  failure  of  the  Red 
River  expedition,  was  ordered  to  follow  it.  General  Lewis 
Wallace,  then  in  command  in  Baltimore,  advanced  with  what 
troops  he  could  raise  to  the  Monocacy  River,  where  the  rail- 
roads from  Frederick  and  from  Harper's  Ferry  crossed  on  an 
iron  bridge.     It  was,  too,  the  meeting-place  of  the  turnpikes 

from  Washington  and  Balti- 
more to  Frederick.  Wallace's 
men  were  mostly  home- 
guards  and  "hundred  days' 
men" — that  is,  men  who  had 
enlisted  to  serve  for  a  hun- 
dred days — but  hearing  that 
the  Sixth  Corps  was  on  its 
way  to  Washington,  he  de- 
termined to  fight  Early,  in 
hope  of  detaining  him  until 
the  veteran  troops  should  ar- 
rive. No  one  then  knew 
anything  about  the  number 
or  the  destination  of  the  Con- 
federate force,  but  it  was  be- 
lieved to  be  large  enough  to  capture  either  Washington  or  Bal- 
timore. The  authorities  at  the  Capital  were  excited  with  fear, 
and  the  wildest  rumors  were  set  afloat  and  believed  by  every- 
body. 

Early  reached  Wallace's  position  on  the  Monocacy  in  the 
morning  of  July  9,  and  after  a  sharp  fight,  in  which  nearly  two 
thousand  Union  men  were  lost,  was  victorious.  Wallace  re- 
treated to  Baltimore,  followed  by  the  Confederate  cavalry,  which 
tore  up  the  railroad  track  and  destroyed  the  great  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  Railroad  bridge.  The  Union  people  of  Baltimore 
were  greatly  excited  by  the  news  of  the  defeat  and  the  report 
that  the  Confederates  were  approaching,  while  the  secessionists 


Jubal  Early. 


1864.] 


GENERAL  FRANKLIN'S  ESCAPE. 


449 


could  scarcely  hide  their  joy.  Drams  beat  in  the  streets,  and 
thousands  of  loyal  men  armed  themselves  and  went  to  help  de- 
fend the  earthworks  around  the  city,  while  women  anxiously 
packed  their  valuables  and  made  ready  for  flight.  The  Con- 
federates, under  General  Bradley  Johnson,  of  Maryland,  reached 
the  suburbs  the  next  day,  but  found  the  works  too  strong  to  be 
taken  by  a  dash,  and  contented  themselves  with  destroying 
railroads  and  other  property.  Major  Harry  Gilmor,  also  a 
native  of  Maryland,  was  sent  to  cut  the  railways  between  Balti- 
more and  Philadelphia.  He  stopped  the  train  going  north- 
ward, plundered  the  passengers  and  mails,  and  destroyed  the 
cars.  Among  the  passengers  was  Major-General  Franklin,  who 
had  been  prominent  in  McClellan's 
army.  He  was  in  citizen's  clothes 
and  might  hare  passed  unnoticed 
if  some  secession  women  had  not 
pointed  him  out  to  Colonel  Gilmor. 
Gilmor  took  him  prisoner  and  sent 
him  off  under  guard.  The  men 
stojrped  in  a  wheat-field  to  rest  and 
fell  asleep.  Franklin  also  pretended 
to  go  to  sleep,  and  as  soon  as  his 
captors  were  snoring  he  got  up, 
walked  leisurely  down  the  road  past 
the  sleeping  sentinels,  and  escaped 
into  a  wood,  where  he  hid  himself 
until  night.  The  Confederates  searched  for  him  in  vain,  and 
the  next  morning  he  reached  the  house  of  some  Union  people, 
who  sent  word  to  Baltimore,  and  a  squadron  of  cavalry  went 
out  and  escorted  him  in  safety  to  the  city. 

Meanwhile  Early  with  the  main  body  of  his  force  had  ad- 
vanced toward  Washington.  Had  he  pressed  on  rapidly  after 
the  battle  at  Monocacy,  he  might  have  taken  the  Capital  and 
done  much  damage,  but  he  had  been  so  roughly  handled  by 
Wallace  that  he  had  been  obliged  to  wait  until  noon  of  the  next 
day  (July  10).  In  the  morning  of  the  11th  he  reached  the 
outer  fortifications  of  Washington,  but  it  was  then  too  late;  the 
Sixth  Corps  had  arrived,  and  shortly  afterward  it  was  followed 
by  the  Nineteenth.  During  the  next  day  there  was  some  sharp 
fighting,  with  a  loss  of  about  three  hundred  on  each  side?  and 


Lewis  Wallace, 


450 


GRANT  AND  LEE. 


[1864. 


that  night  Early  retreated  and  recrossed  the  Potomac  at 
Edwards  Ferry,  carrying  with  him  much  booty  gathered  in 
Maryland. 

General  Wright,  commander  of  the  Sixth  Corps,  who  had 
been  given  charge  of  all  the  troops  around  Washington,  pursued 
Early  and  had  a  smart  skirmish  with  him  at  Snicker's  Ferry  on 
the  Shenandoah  Kiver  (July  18);  and  two  days  afterward  Averill 
defeated  part  of  the  Confederate  force  at  Winchester.  Grant, 
supposing  that  Early  was  in  full  retreat  down  the  Valley, 
ordered  the  Sixth  and  Nineteenth  Corps  back  to  Petersburg, 
and  directed  General  Hunter,  who  had  finally  got  his  army  out 

of  the  mountains  of 
West  Virginia,  to  re- 
main in  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley.  General 
Crook,  who  was  in  com- 
mand at  Harper's  Ferry, 
marched  up  the  Valley 
about  the  same  time, 
but  was  met  by  the  Con- 
federates at  Kernstown, 
defeated  with  a  loss  of 
twelve  hundred  men, 
and  driven  back  to 
Martinsburg.  Among 
the  Union  killed  was 
General  Mulligan,  who 
had  so  bravely  defended  Lexington  (1861)  against  Price  (page 
114).  Early  followed  and  drove  Crook  across  the  Potomac. 
About  three  thousand  Confederate  cavalry  crossed  again  into 
Maryland,  and  riding  into  Pennsylvania  entered  Chambersburg, 
a  town  of  about  five  thousand  inhabitants.  The  invaders  de- 
manded a  ransom  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  greenbacks 
for  the  town,  threatening  to  burn  it  if  the  sum  were  not  paid. 
While  their  officers  were  talking  about  the.  tribute  the  sol- 
diers went  through  the  houses,  taking  everything  of  value  they 
could  find.  Watches,  jewelry,  silver-ware,  hats,  caps,  boots, 
and  clothing  were  carried  off,  and  many  people  were  robbed  of 
watches  and  money  in  .the  streets  at  the  point  of  the  pistol. 
The  court-house  bell  was  rung  to  call  the  people  together  to 


Philip  H.  Shj^kidam. 


1864.]      SHERIDAN  IN  THE  SHENANDOAH-  VALLEY.        451 

discuss  the  question  of  the  tribute,  but  no  one  came;  all  had 
resolved  to  pay  no  money.  The  Confederates,  enraged,  set  fire 
to  the  houses,  and  in  a  short  time  the  greater  part  of  the  town 
was  in  flames.  As  Averill  was  not  far  off,  they  retreated 
toward  the  Potomac  after  this  barbarous  act,  and  though  they 
were  closely  pursued  and  suffered  some  loss,  most  of  them  got 
safe  into  Virginia. 

Grant  then  saw  that  it  was  necessary  to  leave  some  troops  in 
the  Valley  to  prevent  raids  upon  Washington  and  into  the  loyal 
States,  so  he  ordered  the  Sixth  and  Nineteenth  Corps  to  re- 
main, and  sent  General  Philip  H.  Sheridan  to  take  the  chief 
command  (August  7).  Sheridan  made  his  headquarters  at 
Harper's  Ferry  and  spent  several  weeks  in  getting  his  troops 
ready  to  attack  Early  in  the  Valley.  The  Valley  of  the  Shenan- 
doah was  then  rich  in  grain,  fruit,  cattle,  sheep,  and  hogs;  in- 
deed, it  was  so  full  of  food  that  the  Confederate  army  could 
march  up  and  down  it,  living  on  the  inhabitants,  without  the 
trouble  of  carrying  a  long  wagon-train  of  supplies.  Grant,  feel- 
ing that  the  raids  up  the  Valley,  threatening  Washington  and 
Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  would  continue  as  long  as  the 
Confederates  could  live  on  the  country,  ordered  Sheridan  to 
drive  the  enemy  up  the  Valley  and  destroy  everything  that 
could  not  be  consumed  by  his  troops. 

Early  was  then  with  about  twelve  thousand  men  on  the 
west  bank  of  Opequan  Creek,  not  far  from  Winchester. 
Sheridan,  who  had  three  times  as  many  men,  tea  thousand  of 
whom  were  cavalry,  attacked  him  there  in  the  morning  of  Sep- 
tember 19,  and  badly  defeated  him.  Early,  leaving  in  the  vic- 
tor's hands  two  thousand  five  hundred  prisoners  and  five  pieces 
of  artillery,  retreated  to  Fisher's  Hill,  a  strong  position  south 
of  Winchester.  On  the  22d  of  September,  Sheridan  again  fell 
upon  him  and  routed  him,  taking  sixteen  more  cannons  and 
several  hundred  prisoners.  Early  retreated  down  the  Valley, 
and  Sheridan,  after  following  as  far  as  Staunton,  returned  and 
took  a  position  on  Cedar  Creek  near  Strasburg.  As  he  fell 
back  from  Staunton  he  laid  waste  the  Valley,  destroying  more 
than  two  thousand  barns  filled  with  wheat  and  hay  and  farming 
tools,  and  more  than  seventy  mills  filled  with  flour  and  wheat; 
he  also  killed  and  fed  to  the  troops  three  thousand  sheep,  and 
drove  off  before  the  army  more  than  four  thousand  cattle  and 


452  GRANT  AND  LEE.  [1864. 

many  horses.  This  act  is  justified  by  some  writers;  but  it  is 
also  sharply  criticised  by  others,  who  think  that  the  advantage 
gained  was  not  equal  to  the  suffering  inflicted  on  the  people  of 
the  Valley. 

Early  was  soon  reinforced  from  Lee's  army,  and  again 
marched  down  the  Valley  and  took  his  old  position  at  Fisher's 
Hill.  At  dawn  of  the  morning  of  October  19  he  surprised  the 
Union  army  on  Cedar  Creek,  during  General  Sheridan's  ab- 
sence in  Washington.  The  first  line  was  routed  at  once,  and 
soon  the  whole  Union  left  and  centre  was  falling  back  toward 
Winchester  in  a  confused  mass.  Only  the  Sixth  Corps  stood 
firm,  and  this  was  used  by  General  Wright  to  cover  the  retreat. 
AY  right  fell  back  beyond  Middletown,  where  he  formed  in  line 
of  battle  in  a  strong  position  and  was  ready  to  renew  the  fight 
when  Sheridan  reached  the  field.  He  had  heard  the  noise  of 
the  conflict  at  Winchester,  and  had  ridden  post-haste  to  the 
front.  His  coming  gave  the  Union  men  new  spirit  and  energy. 
Hundreds  of  stragglers  turned  and  followed  him  back  to  the 
field,  and  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  enemy  were 
charged  so  bravely  that  a  bad  disaster  was  soon  changed  into  a 
brilliant  victory.  The  Confederates,  elated  by  their  success  in 
the  morning,  had  broken  their  ranks  and  scattered  in  search 
of  plunder  among  the  Union  camps.  Taken  by  surprise  in 
their  turn,  they  fell  back  before  the  charge  of  Sheridan's  men. 
In  a  few  minutes  their  retreat  became  a  rout.  They  fled 
through  Middletown,  across  Cedar  Creek,  and  on  beyond  Stras- 
burg,  not  halting  until  night  put  an  end  to  the  pursuit  at 
Fisher's  Hill.  The  Confederates  had  taken  in  the  morning 
eighteen  pieces  of  artillery  from  the  Union  troops,  but  in  their 
flight  in  the  afternoon  they  were  obliged  to  abandon  these  and 
twenty-three  more  pieces.  During  his  campaign  in  the  Valley 
against  Early,  Sheridan  had  lost  about  seventeen  thousand  men, 
and  Early  nearly  twenty-three  thousand,  of  whom  thirteen 
thousand  were  prisoners.  This  ended  all  important  opera- 
tions in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Early  retreated  southward 
the  next  day,  and  what  was  left  of  his  infantry  soon  after  joined 
Lee  at  Petersburg.  The  Sixth  Corps  rejoined  Grant,  and  some 
of  Sheridan's  cavalry  were  taken  from  him  and  sent  to  serve 
elsewhere. 

Let  us  now  return  to  Petersburg  and  see  what  took  place 


1864.]  THE  PETERSBURG  MINE.  453 

there  during  Early's  raids.  For  about  a  month  the  soldiers  of 
Burnside's  Corps  had  been  busy  digging  a  mine  under  one  of 
the  forts  in  front  of  the  city,  with,  the  intention  of  blowing  it 
up.  The  men  began  to  dig  in  a  hollow  out  of  sight  of  the 
Confederates,  and  made  a  gallery,  four  and  a  half  feet  high  and 
about  five  hundred  feet  long,  the  top  and  sides  being  lined  with 
timber  and  planks  to  keep  them  from  caving.  The  earth  was 
carried  out  in  barrows  made  of  cracker  boxes  and  hidden  under 
brushwood,  so  that  the  enemy  might  not  find  out  what  was 
going  on.  At  the  extreme  end,  under  the  fort,  side  galleries 
were  cut,  extending  about  thirty-five  feet  each  way,  as  shown 
in  the  picture.  In  these  were  constructed  magazines,  in  which 
were  placed  eight  thousand  pounds  of  gunpowder,  the  different 
parts  being  connected  by  tubes  half-filled  with  gunpowder,  and 


The  Petersburg  Mine,  Showing  the  Galleries  and  the  Outline  of  the  Crater. 

with  three  fuses,  or  slow-matches,  which  extended  through  the 
main  gallery. 

The  plan  was  to  explode  the  mine  on  the  30th  of  June  at 
half-past  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  then  to  let  one  of 
Burnside's  divisions  rush  through  the  breach  thus  made  and 
storm  a  height  called  Cemetery  Hill  in  the  rear  of  the  fort, 
which  commanded  the  city.  The  fuses  were  lighted  at  the 
appointed  time  and  everybody  watched  anxiously  for  the  explo- 
sion, but  in  vain.  After  the  lapse  of  an  hour  it  became  evident 
that  something  was  wrong,  and  two  brave  men  volunteered  to 
go  into  the  gallery  to  see  what  the  trouble  was.  They  found 
that  the  fuses  had  gone  out  at  the  places  where  they  were 
spliced,  only  about  fifty  feet  from  the  powder.  They  relighted 
them  and  ran  from  the  gallery,  just  in  time  to  escape  the  explo- 


454  GRANT  AND  LEE.  [1864. 

sion.  There  was  a  rumble  underground  like  the  shaking  of  an 
earthquake,  and  with  a  dull  roar  a  large  mass  of  earth  rose  into 
the  air  two  hundred  feet  and  then  fell  amid  a  cloud  of  black 
smoke.  In  that  brief  moment  the  whole  fort  and  its  garrison 
of  three  hundred  men  had  been  blown  to  atoms,  and  in  the 
place  where  it  had  stood  was  left  a  crater  of  loose  earth  two 
hundred  feet  long  and  nearly  a  fourth  as  wide  and  deep.  As 
soon  as  the  mine  had  exploded,  the  heavy  artillery  opened  on 
the  enemy's  works  all  along  the  line.  The  Confederate  bat- 
teries were  soon  silenced,  and  the  men  selected  for  the  assault 
moved  toward  the  breach.  But  there  was  much  delay  in 
removing  abatis  and  wires  that  had  been  stretched  by  the 
Confederates  along  the  front  of  the  fort  to  trip  up  assaulting 
parties,  and  when  the  men  got  into  the  crater  they  halted, 
though  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  them  going  forward. 
For  more  than  two  hours  the  troops  huddled  under  the  bank 
or  behind  the  breastworks,  and  finally  became  mixed  up  and 
disordered. 

For  a  half -hour  after  the  explosion  the  Confederates  seemed 
paralyzed  by  the  shock,  and  it  is  believed  that  Petersburg  would 
have  fallen  if  the  Union  troops  had  made  a  quick  attack.  But 
they  soon  recovered  themselves  and  brought  up  infantry  and 
artillery  to  defend  the  breach.  General  Burnside,  seeing  that 
the  troops  in  the  crater  were  not  advancing,  ordered  a  divi- 
sion of  colored  soldiers  to  try  an  assault.  The  colored  troops 
passed  through  the  crater  and  charged  up  the  slope  beyond, 
but  they  were  met  by  a  heavy  artillery  and  musketry  fire, 
and  driven  back.  They  rallied  and  advanced  again,  but 
were  again  repulsed,  and  fled  in  confusion  through  the  white 
troops  in  the  crater.  The  Confederates  fired  shot  and  shell 
into  the  disordered  mass.  The  Union  men  struggled  to 
escape,  every  man  for  himself  seeking  safety  in  flight.  More 
than  four  thousand  were  killed  or  taken  prisoners,  while  the 
Confederate  loss  was  less  than  a  thousand,  including  those 
blown  up  in  the  fort.  Thus  ended  in  disaster  what  promised, 
said  General  Grant,  to  be  the  most  successful  assault  of  the 
campaign.  Shortly  afterward  General  Burnside  was  relieved, 
at  his  own  request,  and  the  command  of  his  corps  (the  Ninth) 
was  given  to  General  John  G.  Parke. 

It  being  settled  that  Petersburg  could  not  be  taken  by  a 


1864.] 


RICHMOND  AND  PETERSBURG. 


455 


Defences  op  Richmond  and  Petersburg. 


456  GRANT  AND  LEE.  [1864. 

direct  assault,  Grant   spent  the  greater  part   of  August  in 
strengthening  his  lines  in  front  of  the  city. 

The  positions  of  the  two  forces  at  this  time  can  be  more 
easily  understood  from  the  accompanying  map,  which  shows 
the  fortifications,  railroads  and  other  roads  around  Eichmond 
and  Petersburg,  and  the  fortifications  built  by  Butler  across  the 
neck  of  Bermuda  Hundred.  The  Confederates  held  both  Rich- 
mond and  Petersburg  and  the  line  of  railroad  between  them; 
but  Lee  drew  most  of  his  supplies  from  the  south  by  means  of 
the  Weldon  Railroad  and  the  Southside  Railroad.  Grant,  who 
drew  his  supplies  from  City  Point,  at  the  junction  of  the  Appo- 
mattox and  James  Rivers,  had  made  several  attempts  to  extend 
his  lines  around  on  the  south  side  of  Petersburg,  so  as  to  cut 
off  Lee  from  the  Weldon  Railroad,  but  all  his  efforts  had  failed. 
On  the  13th  of  August,  General  Hancock,  whose  troops  had 
been  sent  up  the  James  River  to  a  place  called  Deep  Bottom 
(see  map),  landed  and  marched  toward  Richmond  as  if  to  at- 
tack it.  He  soon  came  upon  the  Confederate  intrenchments, 
which  he  attacked.  There  was  sharp  fighting  for  several  days, 
but  Lee  having  strongly  reinforced  his  lines  nothing  was  gained, 
and  Hancock  returned  (Aug.  20)  to  his  camp  before  Peters- 
burg. But  this  movement  led  to  the  capture  of  the  Weldon  Rail- 
road. Grant,  taking  advantage  of  the  absence  of  Lee's  men  sent 
against  Hancock,  ordered  Warren  to  move  once  more  upon  the 
railroad.  Warren  reached  the  road  about  four  miles  from 
Petersburg  (Aug.  18)  and  began  to  intrench  himself.  On  the 
next  day  Lee  attacked  him,  but  Warren  held  what  he  had 
won.  Two  days  afterward  (Aug.  21)  Lee  again  attacked,  but 
was  driven  back  with  heavy  loss.  By  the  24th  seven  miles  of 
the  railroad  had  been  destroyed  so  as  to  be  useless  to  the  Con- 
federates. Hancock,  who  had  been  ordered  on  his  return  from 
the  north  side  of  the  James  to  aid  in  destroying  the  Weldon 
Railroad,  had  moved  to  Reams's  Station,  behind  the  position 
held  by  Warren.  He  had  torn  up  several  miles  of  the  track, 
when  he  was  attacked  by  Lee  and  defeated  with  the  loss  of  five 
guns  and  more  than  a  fourth  of  his  men.  But  the  Weldon  Rail- 
road was  held  by  Grant,  and  by  the  middle  of  September  a 
branch  railroad  was  built  from  City  Point  around  to  it,  so  that 
supplies  and  troops  could  be  quickly  moved  from  one  end  to  the 
other  of  the  Union  lines. 


1864.]  DUTCH  CAP  CANAL.  457 

Having  secured  the  Weldon  Railroad,  Grant  turned  his  at- 
tention to  the  capture  of  the  Southside  Railroad,  on  which  Lee 
then  chiefly  depended  for  his  supplies.  An  attempt  was  made 
to  reach  and  cut  it  (Oct.  27),  but  it  was  defeated  by  the  Con- 
federates, and  from  that  time  until  the  opening  of  the  next 
spring  but  little  was  done  by  either  side,  excepting  to  hold  and 
to  strengthen  the  lines,  though  a  constant  fire  was  kept  up 
throughout  the  winter  by  the  pickets  and  artillerymen.  The 
Confederates  suffered  greatly  during  the  cold  weather  on  ac- 
count of  the  want  of  proper  food  and  clothing,  for  they  had 
much  difficulty  in  getting  supplies. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  was  finished  the  Dutch  Gap  Canal, 
which  General  Butler  had  been  digging  for  several  months 
across  the  narrow  neck  of  an  isthmus  made  by  a  bend  in  the 
James  River  (see  map,  p.  455).  If  the  river  could  be  made  to 
flow  through  this,  steamers  could  save  six  or  seven  miles  of  dis- 
tance and  avoid  obstructions  in  the  river  and  Confederate  for- 
tifications on  the  banks  around  the  bend.  The  canal,  which 
was  only  about  five  hundred  feet  long,  was  dug  by  negroes. 
The  Confederates  built  a  battery  at  Howlett's,  on  the  south 
bank  of  the  James,  and  annoyed  the  workmen  greatly  by  throw- 
ing shells  into  the  excavation.  To  escape  these  the  men  dug 
huts  to  live  in  and  holes  for  shelter  in  the  side  of  the  river 
bank.  The  canal  was  finally  finished  with  the  exception  of  a 
narrow  wall  of  earth  at  the  upper  end,  which  had  been  left  to 
keep  out  the  water.  In  this  a  mine  was  made  and  charged 
with  twelve  thousand  pounds  of  gunpowder,  but  when  it  was 
exploded  most  of  the  earth  thrown  up  fell  back  into  the  open- 
ing, which  was  not  deep  enough  for  vessels  to  pass  through. 
The  channel  could  not  be  dredged  on  account  of  the  firing 
from  the  Confederate  battery,  and  so  the  canal  proved  a  failure 
as  a  military  operation.  But  after  the  war  it  Was  deepened, 
and  steamers  for  Richmond  now  pass  through  and  save  going 
•round  the  long  bend. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 
ATLANTA    CAMPAIGN. 

Johnston  and  Sherman.— The  Two  Armies.— Cars  and  Locomotives  Wanted.— Thomas's 
Circus.— Dalton  to  Resaca.— Dallas.— New  Hope  Church.— Rome  Taken.— Kenesaw 
Mountain.— Brave  Engineer.— Death  of  General  Polk.— Bad  Weather.— Wood  Ticks. 
—Sherman  Repulsed.— Johnston  Crosses  the  Chattahoochee.— Rousseau's  Raid. — 
Are  these  Yanks?— Hood  Succeeds  Johnston.— Atlanta.— Hood's  Sally.— He  Fights 
Agaln.— Death  of  McPherson.— Raids  on  the  Railroads.— Hood  Strikes  a  Third 
Time.— Siege  of  Atlanta.— Hood  Cut  Off.— Evacuation  of  Atlanta.— Honors  to 
Sherman.— Atlanta  Desolated. — Davis  Visits  Hood. — Hood  Marches  Northward. — 
Allatoona.— Signalling.—  A  Duplicate  Tunnel.— Atlanta  in  Ashes.— Glory,  Halle- 
lujah !— Grant  is  Waiting  for  Us  '. 

WHEN"  Grant  moved  against  Lee  in  Virginia  lie  ordered 
General  Sherman,  who  had  succeeded  him  in  the  West, 
to  make  a  similar  movement  against  General  Joseph  E.  John- 
ston, who  had  taken  Bragg's  place  in  command  of  the  principal 
Confederate  army  in  the  West.  Johnston  was  then  stationed 
at  Dalton,  in  the  northwest  part  of  Georgia,  in  which  position 
he  guarded  Atlanta,  the  meeting-place  of  railways  and  the  site 
of  many  important  manufactures.  His  army,  which  consisted 
of  about  fifty-five  thousand  men,  was  divided  into  three  corps, 
under  command  of  Generals  Hardee,  Hood,  and  Polk. 

To  march  against  this  force  General  Sherman  had  near 
Chattanooga  about  one  hundred  thousand  men,  or  nearly  two 
to  one;  but  in  calculating  the  relative  strength  of  the  two 
armies  we  must  remember  that  Johnston  was  in  his  own  coun- 
try," with  his  lines  of  communication  open  behind  him,  while 
Sberman  had  to  draw  all  his  supplies  from  Nashville,  through  a 
hostile  country,  over  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  rail- 
way, all  of  which  had  to  be  kept  strongly  guarded  against 
guerrillas;  and  as  the  army  advanced  still  further  southward 
from  Chattanooga  many  more  men  had  to  be  left  behind  to  keep 
the  roads  open  and  to  guard  places  taken.  Besides  the  hun- 
dred thousand  men,  there  were  thirty-five  thousand  horses  to 
be  fed.  General  Sherman  calculated  that  to  feed  this  great 
army  would  require  the  delivery  every  day  at  Chattanooga  of 
one  hundred  and  thirty  car-loads  of  provisions.  As  there  were 
not  enough  cars  and  locomotives  to  do  this  work,  General 
Sherman  recpiested  the  authorities  at  Louisville  to  hold  on  to 


1864.] 


SHERMAN'S  ARMY. 


459 


all  trains  coming  from  the  north,  and  to  send  them  to  him,  and 
he  soon  had  running  to  Chattanooga  trains  marked  with  the 
names  of  almost  every  railroad  north  of  the  Ohio  River.  By 
this  means  he  succeeded  in  getting  supplies  enough  for  his 
army  in  time  for  the  movement  against  Johnston. 

The  army  was  made  up  of  three  different  armies — the  Army 
of  the  Cumberland,  under  General  Thomas;  the  Army  of  the 
Tennessee,  under  General  McPherson;  and  the  Army  of  the 
Ohio,  under  General  Schofield.  In  order  to  move  as  quickly  as 
possible,  Sherman  ordered  that  but  little  baggage  should  be 
taken,  K"o  tents  were  al- 
lowed, except  for  the  sick 
and  wounded, and  each  offi- 
cer and  soldier  was  obliged 
to  carry  on  his  horse  or  per- 
son food  and  clothing 
enough  for  five  days.  Sher- 
man himself  set  the  exam- 
ple of  going  without  a  tent, 
and  he  and  his  officers,  like 
the  common  soldiers,  used  ,    ,,. 

only  tent-flies,  or  squares  l'i\:  //lO1*  -.(\  I  ■  '"^  \  '[■/.,  \ 
of  canvas,  which  could  be 
spread  over  saplings  or 
fence-rails  so  as  to  make  a 
shelter  to  sleep  under. 
General  Thomas  only,  who  needed  a  tent,  had  a  wagon-train, 
which  the  soldiers  used  to  call  in  fun  '"Thomas's  Circus." 

On  the  5th  of  May,  18G4,  the  army  started  on  its  march 
southward  from  Chattanooga,  and  the  campaign  was  begun. 
Sherman  could  not  go  directly  to  Dalton  on  account  of  a  chain 
of  mountains,  lying  between  it  and  Chattanooga,  through  which 
there  was  in  front  only  one  pass,  too  strongly  fortified  to  be 
taken.  So,  while  a  false  attack  was  made  on  this  pass,  McPher- 
son was  ordered  to  march  southward,  through  another  pass  in 
the  rear  of  Johnston,  to  Eesaca,  eighteen  miles  south  of  Dalton, 
and  there  to  cut  the  railroad  by  which  Johnston  received  his 
supplies.  McPherson  went  to  Resaca,  but  finding  it  too  strong 
to  be  taken,  fell  back  to  the  pass  in  the  mountains  and  waited 
for  the  main  army  to  come  up. 


William  T.  Sherman. 


460  ATLANTA   CAMPAIGN  [1864 

Sherman  was  disappointed  at  the  failure  to  cut  the  railroad, 
but  sent  more  troops  and  ordered  another  movement  against 
Resaca.  Johnston,  afraid  of  having  his  line  of  supplies  cut, 
abandoned  Dalton  (May  13)  and  fell  back  to  Resaca.  Sher- 
man attacked  him  there  on  the  14th,  and  during  that  and  all 
of  the  next  day  there  was  sharp  fighting  between  the  two  armies. 
During-  the  night  of  the  15th  Johnston  left  Resaca  and  re- 
treated  across  the  Etowah  River.  Sherman  followed,  but  feel- 
ing that  Johnston  would  defend  the  Allatoona  Pass,  where  the 
railroad  passes  through  the  mountains  south  of  the  river,  he 
marched  (May  23)  toward  Dallas.  The  country  around  there 
is  very  rough  and  thickly  wooded,  and  the  roads  are  few  and 
poor.  When  Sherman  reached  New  Hope  Church,  near  Dallas, 
he  found  that  Johnston  had  posted  his  army  in  a  very  strong 
position,  his  lines  extending  eastward  nearly  to  Marietta.  A 
severe  battle  took  place  near  the  church  (May  25),  in  which 
nothing  was  decided,  the  Confederates  still  holding  their  posi- 
tion. In  the  meantime  part  of  Thomas's  army  had  taken 
Rome,  destroyed  the  important  mills  and  foundries  there,  and 
left  a  garrison  to  defend  it. 

There  was  almost  continual  fighting  for  several  days,  which 
ended  in  Johnston's  giving  up  Allatoona  Pass,  falling  back 
from  New  Hope  Church,  and  taking  another  strong  position  on 
Kenesaw,  Pine,  and  Lost  Mountains.  These  three  mountains, 
which  guard  the  railroad  leading  into  Marietta,  are  peaks  of  one 
chain,  but  occupy  nearly  the  points  of  a  triangle,  Kenesaw  on 
the  east  and  Lost  Mountain  on  the  west  end  of  the  base,  and 
Pine  Mountain  forming  the  apex  or  point  toward  the  north. 
Lost  and  Pine  Mountains  are  almost  perfect  cones,  but  Kene- 
saw is  a  twin  mountain,  its  top  being  divided  into  two  peaks. 
About  two  miles  south  of  Kenesaw  lies  Marietta,  then  a  little 
town  of  nearly  two  thousand  inhabitants. 

When  Sherman  reached  Johnston's  position  he  found  his 
army  posted  on  a  line  about  ten  miles  long.  On  the  tops  of 
the  three  mountains  were  signal  stations  and  batteries,  and  the 
sides  were  alive  with  men  cutting  down  trees  to  form  breast- 
works and  abatis,  and  digging  rifle-pits.  Sherman  had  been 
reinforced  by  troops  under  General  Frank  Blair,  so  that  not- 
withstanding his  losses,  he  Avas  as  strong  as  when  he  left 
Chattanooga,  and  he  now  determined  to  drive  the  enemy  from 


1864]  GENERAL  POLK  KILLED.  461 

his  position,  rather  than  to  try  another  flank  movement.  In 
the  mean  time  the  railroad  bridge  across  the  Etowah  had  been 
rebuilt,  and  loaded  trains  of  cars  followed  the  army  nearly  up 
to  Kenesaw.  One  day  an  engineer  ran  his  locomotive  to  a 
water-tank  within  range  of  the  Confederate  guns  on  the  moun- 
tain. The  batteries  opened  on  him,  but  he  coolly  waited  until 
he  had  filled  his  tank,  and  returned  safe  to  his  train,  his  engine 
whistling  defiance  to  the  enemy's  guns,  and  the  soldiers  giving 
him  hearty  cheers  and  a  "  tiger  "  for  his  bravery. 

The  army  was  soon  in  position  opposite  the  Confederate 
lines,  but  this  was  not  accomplished  without  great  labor,  for 
roads  for  the  supply  trains  had  to  be  cut  through  dense  and 
tangled  woods,  and  heavy  rains  fell  almost  daily.  On  the 
14th  of  June  the  rain  slackened,  and  General  Sherman  rode 
along  the  lines  to  look  for  a  good  place  to  attack.  When 
near  Pine  Mountain  he  saw  a  battery  on  the  crest,  and  near 
it  a  group  of  Confederates  looking  down  with  spy-glasses. 
Sherman  ordered  some  gunners  to  fire  on  the  Confederates  to 
drive  them  back,  and  continued  his  ride.  Soon  after  he 
heard  the  guns,  and  when  he  reached  his  headquarters  at  night 
he  was  told  that  Lieutenant-General  Polk  had  been  killed  by 
the  fire.  It  seems  that  Generals  Johnston,  Hardee,  and  Polk 
had  ridden  to  Pine  Mount  in  to  reconnoitre.  General  John- 
ston, seeing  the  preparations  to  fire,  told  the  soldiers  who  had 
gathered  near  him  to  scatter,  and  went  himself  behind  the 
breastwork.  But  General  Polk,  who  was  fleshy  and  very  dig- 
nified, walked  slowly  back,  and  was  killed  almost  instantly  by 
a  shell,  which  struck  him  across  the  breast.  On  the  next  day 
Pine  Mountain  was  abandoned  by  the  Confederates,  and  a 
stake  was  found  driven  into  the  ground  with  a  paper  attached 
to  it,  inscribed: 

"Here  General  Polk  was  killed  by  a  Yankee  shell.'' 
On  June  16th  the  Confederates  gave  up  Lost  Mountain, 
Johnston  drawing  back  his  lines  so  as  to  cover  Marietta.  Sher- 
man closed  up  after  him,  and  fighting  took  place  almost  every 
day,  notwithstanding  the  bad  weather.  It  rained  most  of  the 
time,  and  the  roads  were  impassable,  while  the  fields  and  woods 
were  turned  into  quagmires.  The  bushes  were  filled  with  wood- 
ticks,  a  little  insect  that  burrows  under  the  skin  and  causes 
great  irritation  and  itching,  and  the  soldiers  had  all  they  could 


462  ATLANTA   CAMPAIGN.  [1864. 

do  to  fight  them  and  the  Confederate  sharpshooters,  who  were 
equally  on  the  lookout  for  them.  On  the  27th  of  June,  Sher- 
man assaulted  the  enemy's  lines,  but  was  repulsed  with  much 
loss,  the  enemy,  who  fought  from  behind  breastworks,  suffer- 
ing but  little. 

Sherman  then  made  up  his  mind  to  move  round  the  enemy 
again.  This  obliged  Johnston  to  leave  Kenesaw  and  Marietta 
and  fall  back  further,  for  fear  that  Sherman  would  cross  the 
Chattahoochee  River  and  get  between  him  and  Atlanta.  Early 
in  the  morning  of  July. 3d  the  stars  and  stripes  were  unfurled 
on  Kenesaw,  and  about  eight  o'clock  General  Sherman  rode  into 
Marietta.  He  ordered  a  vigorous  pursuit  of  Johnston,  and 
hoped  to  strike  him  a  severe  blow  while  crossing  the  Chatta- 
hoochee, which  is  only  eight  miles  from  Atlanta.  But  John- 
ston, who  was  too  skilful  a  general  to  be  caught  in  that  way,  had 
constructed  strong  works  there  to  cover  the  bridges,  so  that 
he  could  cross  safely  when  he  pleased.  General  Sherman  had 
now  a  very  difficult  task  before  him,  for  he  had  to  pass  a  deep 
river  guarded  by  a  vigilant  and  strongly-fortified  enemy.  But 
he  so  marched  his  troops  as  to  make  Johnston  think  that  he 
was  going  to  try  to  cross  below  his  position,  and  while  the 
enemy  was  watching  him  there,  other  troops  were  sent  above, 
who  succeeded  in  getting  over  and  taking  possession  of  a  strong 
place  on  high  ground.  By  the  9th  of  July,  Sherman  had  se- 
cured three  crossing-places,  with  good  roads  to  Atlanta,  and 
Johnston  retired  with  his  whole  army  to  the  other  side. 

In  the  meantime  Sherman  had  ordered  General  Rousseau, 
who  was  at  Decatur,  Alabama,  to  make  a  raid  from  there  to 
Opelika  with  a  body  of  cavalry,  and  to  cut  the  railroad  between 
Atlanta  and  Montgomery.  While  on  this  ride,  he  came,  one 
hot,  dusty  day,  to  a  plantation  near  Talladega,  and  halting  his 
column,  he  and  his  staff  rode  up  to  the  house  of  the  owner. 
Their  uniforms  were  gray  with  dust,  and  the  planter,  taking 
them  for  Confederates,  met  them  cordially  at  the  front  porch. 
General  Rousseau  asked  for  water,  which  was  brought,  and 
Avhile  drinking  he  and  his  officers  sat  on  the  porch  and  talked 
with  their  host.  At  last  the  General,  seeing  some  mules  in  the 
stock-yard,  said: 

"My  good  sir,  I  fear  I  must  take  some  of  your  mules." 

"I  hope,  General,"  remarked  the  planter,  "  that  you  won't 


1863.] 


HOOD  SUCCEEDS  JOHNSTON. 


463 


take  any  more  of  my  stock.  I  have  already  given  very  liber- 
ally to  the  good  cause;  only  last  week  I  furnished  General 
Koddy  Avith  ten  mules." 

"Well,"  replied  Rousseau,  "in  this  war  you  should  be  at 
least  neutral— that  is,  you  should  be  as  liberal  to  me  as  to 
Roddy." 

Roddy  was  a  Confederate  cavalry  general.  The  planter,  see- 
ing his  blunder,  exclaimed: 

"What!  ain't  you  on  our  side?" 

"No;  I  am  General  Rousseau,  and  all  these  men  you  see 
are  Yanks." 

"  Great  God  !   Is  it  possible  ?  Are  these  Yanks  ?  Who  ever 
supposed     they    would 
come  way  down  here  in 
Alabama?" 

Rousseau,  of  course, 
took  his  ten  mules. 
He  struck  the  railroad 
near  Opelika,  and,  mov- 
ing upward,  destroyed 
twenty  miles  of  its 
track,  and  joined  Sher- 
man's army  on  the  22d 
of  July. 

On  the  17th  of  July 
Sherman  began  the 
march  from  the  Chat- 
tahoochee River  to  At- 
lanta, within  the  forti- 
fications of  which  Johnston  had  withdrawn  his  army.  On  the 
same  day  General  Johnston  was  removed  from  the  command  of 
the  Confederate  army  by  orders  from  Richmond,  and  General 
John  B.  Hood  ordered  to  take  his  place.  This  was  a  very 
unfortunate  move  for  the  Confederates.  General  Hood,  who 
was  a  graduate  of  West  Point  and  a  former  officer  in  the 
United  States  army,  was  a  brave  but  rash  soldier,  and  far  less 
skilful  than  General  Johnston,  who  is  regarded  by  military  men 
as  one  of  the  best  officers  of  the  Confederacy.  We  shall  see, 
by  and  by,  how  Johnston  had  to  be  recalled  to  the  command, 
after  Hood  had  nearly  destroyed  the  army  through  his  rashness. 


John  B.  Hood. 


464  ATLANTA   CAMPAIGN.  [1864 

Atlanta,  now  (1881)  the  capital  of  Georgia,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  37,500,  was  then  a  city  of  about  20,000  people.  It  was 
one  of  the  most  important  places  in  the  Confederacy,  for  it  was 
not  only  the  meeting-place  of  several  railroads,  connecting  cen- 
tral Georgia  with  the  north,  the  south,  the  east,  and  the  west, 
but  the  place  chosen  by  the  Confederates  for  great  magazines, 
storehouses,  arsenals,  workshops,  rolling-mills,  and  foundries. 
There  and  in  the  thriving  towns  around  it  were  made  cannon 
and  small-arms,  gunpowder,  cartridges,  and  caps;  machinery 
of  all  kinds,  army  wagons  and  ambulances,  harnesses  for  the 
horses,  and  clothing  and  shoes  for  the  men  of  the  army.  It 
was,  too,  the  principal  grain  and  grass  producing  district  of 
the  Confederacy,  for  the  country  west  of  the  Mississippi,  on 
which  it  had  depended  in  the  beginning  of  the  war,  was  now 
cut  off  from  it  forever.  Atlanta  was  so  far  from  the  seaboard, 
and  was  so  strongly  defended  on  the  west  by  the  lines  of  rugged 
mountains  which  lie  between  the  Atlantic  plain  and  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley,  that  it  was  considered  safe  from  all  attempts  of 
the  enemy  to  reach  it.  Sherman's  advance  through  the  moun- 
tains, his  successful  pushing  back  of  Johnston's  army,  and  his 
crossing  of  the  Chattahoochee,  the  last  barrier  outside  of  its 
earthworks,  created  the  greatest  consternation  not  only  in  the 
city  but  throughout  the  Confederacy.  Up  to  that  time  no 
man  had  thought  that  the  bayonets  of  the  Union  would  gleam 
so  soon  in  front  of  Atlanta. 

General  Sherman,  who  looked  upon  General  Johnston  as  a 
great  soldier  whom  it  was  some  credit  to  defeat,  had  a  far  dif- 
ferent opinion  of  General  Hood.  A  Southern  historian  says 
that  when  Sherman  heard  that  he  had  been  given  Johnston's 
command,  he  jumped  up  and  exclaimed,  "  I  know  that  fellow!" 
Sherman  himself  says  that  he  made  up  his  mind  that  the 
change  meant  "fight,"  and  he  at  once  cautioned  his  com- 
manders to  be  always  ready  for  battle.  To  fight  was  just  what 
he  wanted,  for  he  felt  strong  enough  to  defeat  the  Confeder- 
ates anywhere  in  the  open  field.  It  was  General  Johnston's 
method  of  fighting  behind  intrenchments  that  had  kept  him 
from  Atlanta  so  long.  He  had  not  a  great  while  to  wait,  for 
on  the  20th  Hood  made  a  sally  from  the  works  around  the  city. 
After  a  two  hours'  battle  the  Confederates  were  repulsed,  both 
sides  having  met  with  heavy  losses.     The  Union  troops  then 


1864.] 


death  of  Mcpherson. 


465 


closed  in  around  the  city.  Sherman  found  the  outer  line  of 
works  abandoned,  and  thought  the  city  had  been  given  up. 
But  a  second  and  stronger  line  of  in  frenchmen  ts  was  found 
within,  fully  manned.  Sherman  had  not  men  enough  to  sur- 
round the  whole  city,  but  he  pushed  his  left  far  enough  to  cut 
off  the  Augusta  Railroad  on  the  east. 

In  the  morning  of  the  22d  of  July,  General  Sherman  was 
aroused  by  the  sound  of  firing  on  the  left.  He  asked  General 
McPherson,  who  had  ridden  up  with  his  staff  a  few  minutes 
before,  what  it  meant,  and  after  consulting  a  pocket-compass, 
the  two  agreed  that  the  firing  was  too  far  in  the  rear  to  be  ex- 
plained by  any  known  facts.  McPherson  hastily  called  for  his 
horse,  and  rode  off  with 
his  staff  in  the  direction 
of  the  sounds,  saying  to 
Sherman  that  he  would 
send  back  word  what 
the  firing  meant.  The 
sounds  grew  louder  and 
louder,  the  roar  of  can- 


James  B.  McPherson. 


non  being  mingled  with 
the  crash  of  musketry. 
In  a  few  minutes  one 
of  McPherson's  staff 
dashed  up  to  the  house 
where  Sherman  was  and 
reported  that  the  Gen- 
eral was  either  killed  or 
a  prisoner.  He  said  they  had  ridden  across  to  the  railroad, 
near  which  they  found  that  the  enemy  had  made  an  attack. 
McPherson,  sending  some  of  his  staff  to  bring  up  troops,  rode 
with  a  single  officer  into  the  woods,  doubtless  supposing  that 
he  was  within  the  Union  lines.  He  hud  scarcely  disappeared 
when  the  sound  of  muskets  was  heard,  and  McPherson's  horse 
came  running  back,  riderless  and  covered  with  blood.  About 
an  hour  afterward  an  ambulance  came  to  headquarters  with 
General  McPherson's  body.  A  ball  had  passed  through  him 
near  the  heart,  so  that  he  must  have  been  killed  almost  in- 
stantly. He  is  said  to  have  been  shot  by  one  of  his  own  name, 
Major  McPherson  of  the  Confederate  army.     General  Sherman 


466  ATLANTA   CAMPAIGN.  [1864. 

felt  his  loss  greatly,  for  he  esteemed  him  one  of  his  hest  officers. 
He  says  in  his  Memoirs:  "  McPherson  was  then  in  his  prime 
(about  thirty-four  years  old),  over  six  feet  high,  and  a  very 
handsome  man  in  every  way,  was  universally  liked,  and  had 
many  noble  qualities." 

Sherman  soon  found  out  what  the  Confederates  were  doing. 
Hood,  leaving  part  of  his  army  to  hold  the  fortifications  of 
Atlanta,  had  sallied  out  in  tbc  night  (July  21),  and,  marching 
toward  Decatur,  had  got  into  the  rear  of  McPherson's  troops  on 
the  left  of  the  Union  line.  The  woods  were  so  thick  that  he 
was  enabled  to  get  quite  near  before  he  was  discovered.  The 
battle  began  about  noon  and  raged  for  four  hours.  Again  and 
again  the  Confederates  attacked  the  Union  lines,  but  after 
winning  some  successes,  with  heavy  losses,  they  were  repulsed 
at  all  points  and  finally  withdrew  within  their  works. 

Sherman  had  now  cut  all  the  railroads  excepting  the  Macon 
road,  which  brandies  from  the  Montgomery  road  at  a  place 
called  East  Point.  He  moved  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  then 
commanded  by  General  0.  0.  Howard,  who  had  taken  McPher- 
son's place,  round  to  the  right,  threatening  that  road,  over 
which  the  Confederates  drew  most  of  their  supplies,  and  sent 
out  General  Stoneman  with  five  thousand  cavalry  and  General 
McCook  with  four  thousand  more,  with  orders  to  destroy  it  if 
possible.  But  the  expedition  failed:  Stoneman  was  taken  pris- 
oner with  many  of  his  men;  McCook,  after  damaging  the  road 
slightly,  succeeded  in  getting  back  with  some  loss.  On  the 
28th  Hood  made  another  desperate  attack  on  the  Union  lines, 
hoping  to  strike  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  before  it  had 
strengthened  its  new  position  on  the  west  side  of  the  city.  But 
Howard  was  ready  for  him,  and  after  a  bloody  battle  of  four 
hours  the  Confederates  were  repulsed  and  again  forced  to  seek 
the  shelter  of  their  intrenchments. 

The  siege  went  on  slowly  during  the  month  of  August, 
which  was  hot  and  sultry,  but  the  country  around  was  health- 
ful, and  the  army  suffered  but  little  from  sickness.  The  sol- 
diers built  good  huts  and  cabins  of  timber,  and  made  them- 
selves as  comfortable  as  possible  in  every  way.  Most  of  the 
cabins  were  made  of  rough  logs,  but  some  were  neatly  built 
and  had  good  chimneys  and  canvas  roofs.  From  the  skirmish- 
lines  in  front  came  a  ceaseless  crack  of  musketry,  while  some 


1864  J 


ATLANTA    WON 


467 


heavy  guns,  which  had  been  mounted  within  range  of  Atlanta, 
kept  up  a  bombardment  which  caused  frequent  fires  in  the 
city.  On  the  12th  of  August  General  Sherman  received  news 
that  he  had  been  made  a  major-general  in  the  regular  army, 
and  heard  of  Farragut's  success  in  Mobile  Bay. 

As  said  before,  Sherman  had  not  men  enough  to  surround 
Atlanta  entirely  without  making  his  lines  so  thin  that  the 
enemy  could  easily  break  through  them;  and  the  works  around 
the  city  were  too  strong  and  too  well  defended  to  be  carried  by 
assault.  His  only  hope  of  taking  the  place,  therefore,  lay  in 
cutting  off  its  supplies.  To  do  this  he  must  send  a  sufficient 
force  south  of  the  city  to  take  and  to  hold  the  Macon  Railroad. 
Fortunately  Hood  at  this 
time  sent  a  large  part  of 
his  cavalry  toward  Chat- 
tanooga to  cut  the  rail- 
road behind  Sherman;  but 
Sherman  had  looked  out 
for  that,  and  had  secured 
plenty  of  provisions  at 
Allatoona,  which  he  had 
strongly  fortified.  As  soon 
as  he  knew  that  Hood's 
cavalry  had  gone  he  sent 
his  cavalry  to  the  Macon 
road  ;  then,  taking  pro- 
visions enough  for  fifteen  days,  he  marched  his  whole  army 
around  by  the  west,  and  by  the  end  of  August  had  reached 
Jonesboro.  on  the  Macon  road,  twenty  miles  from  Atlanta. 

Hood  now  saw  that  a  battle  must  decide  the  fate  of  the  city, 
for  he  was  cut  off  from  his  supplies  on  all  sides.  About  noon 
of  August  31st  he  attacked  Howard's  army,  but  was  repulsed 
with  heavy  loss  and  had  to  fall  back.  During  the  next  night 
the  sound  of  heavy  explosions  was  heard  in  the  direction  of  At- 
lanta. Hood  was  blowing  up  his  magazines  and  arsenals.  In 
the  morning  the  Confederates  were  in  full  retreat  toward  Ma- 
con. Sherman  ordered  a  pursuit,  but  soon  withdrew  his  troops 
and  entered  Atlanta.  On  the  same  day  he  telegraphed  to  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  "Atlanta  is  ours  and  fairly  won."  The  glad 
news  spread   quickly   through    all   the  loyal  States,   and   was 


Army  Cabin. 


468  ATLANTA   CAMPAIGN.  [1864. 

received  everywhere  with  the  ringing  of  bells  and  the  firing  of 
cannon.  President  Lincoln  wrote  the  conqueror  a  letter  of 
congratulation  on  his  great  success,  and  General  Grant  wrote 
from  before  Petersburg:  "In  honor  of  your  great  victory,  I 
have  ordered  a  salute  to  be  fired  with  shotted  guns  from  every 
battery  bearing  upon  the  enemy."  In  another  letter  Grant 
wrote:  "I  feel  you  have  accomplished  the  most  gigantic  under- 
taking given  to  any  general  in  this  war,  and  with  a  skill  and 
ability  that  will  be  acknowledged  in  history  as  unsurpassed,  if 
not  unequalled." 

During  the  whole  campaign,  from  Chattanooga  to  Atlanta, 
Sherman  had  lost  a  little  more  than  thirty-one  thousand  men, 
while  he  had  inflicted  on  the  enemy  a  loss  of  about  thirty-five 
thousand  men,  more  than  forty  guns,  and  twenty-five  thousand 
small-arms.  But  the  greatest  loss  of  all  to  the  Confederacy  was 
Atlanta  itself,  proudly  called  the  Gate  City  of  the  South,  the 
key  to  all  the  railroads  running  to  the  Gulf  States  and  to  the 
granaries  of  the  South,  and  its  most  important  manufacturing 
centre  and  depot  of  supplies. 

The  only  drawback  to  Sherman's  victory  was  the  fact  that 
Hood's  army,  forty  thousand  strong,  still  survived  and  was  still 
capable  of  doing  much  mischief.  He  therefore  resolved  to 
make  Atlanta  a  military  post  or  garrison,  and  to  remove  all  the 
families  living  there.  In  cities  previously  taken,  such  as  Mem- 
phis, Vicksburg,  and  Natchez,  the  families  of  Confederate  sol- 
diers had  been  left  to  be  cared  for  and  fed  by  the  Union 
authorities,  while  acting  as  spies  and  doing  all  in  their  power  to 
aid  their  husbands  and  brothers  in  arms  against  the  govern- 
ment. On  this  account  a  much  larger  force  was  needed  to  hold 
these  places,  men  actually  wanted  in  the  field  having  to  be  left 
to  guard  them.  General  Hood  and  the  Confederate  authorities 
protested  against  the  removal  of  the  families  from  Atlanta,  and 
Southern  writers  have  called  it  a  barbarous  act,  but  it  seems 
under  the  circumstances  to  have  been  a  necessity.  General 
Sherman's  act  was  approved  by  the  government  as  justified  by 
the  laws  and  usages  of  war,  and  as  necessary  for  the  safety  of 
his  own  army. 

The  fall  of  Atlanta  was  a  great  blow  to  President  Davis, 
who  believed  that  Hood  would  be  able  to  hold  it  against  all 
Sherman's  efforts  to  take  it.     As  soon  as  the  news  reached  him 


1864]  HOLD  THE  FORT.  469 

he  set  out  to  visit  Hood's  army  to  plan  with  that  general  some 
new  campaign  which  should  make  up  for  so  great  a  loss.  On 
his  way  thither  he  made  speeches  in  the  towns  and  cities  he 
passed  through,  in  which  he  declared  that  the  failure  of  the 
campaign  was  due  to  General  Johnston;  he  prophesied,  too, 
that  Atlanta  would  be  recovered  and  that  General  Sherman 
"would  meet  the  fate  that  befell  Napoleon  in  the  retreat  from 
Moscow."  He  told  the  Tennessee  troops  to  be  of  good  cheer, 
for  their  feet  should  soon  again  press  Tennessee  soil.  This 
made  Sherman  think  that  a  movement  was  intended  in  that 
direction,  and  he  at  once  took  measures  to  guard  against  it. 
He  had  not  long  to  wait.  About  the  end  of  September  he  heard 
that  Hood  had  begun  to  move  his  army  northward,  and  he  saw 
that  it  was  his  intention  to  get  in  his  rear  and  cut  his  line  of 
supplies.  He  at  once  began  to  send  his  artillery,  wagons,  and 
all  the  troops  he  could  spare  up  the  railroad  toward  Tennessee, 
under  command  of  General  Thomas.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  he  had  fortified  Allatoonaand  other  places  on  his  way  to  At- 
lanta; indeed,  all  the  important  stations  and  bridges  on  the  rail- 
road were  guarded  by  troops  in  intrenchments  or  block-honses. 
Hood  crossed  the  Chattahoochee  River  in  the  last  two  days 
of  September,  and  on  the  5th  of  October  attacked  Allatoona. 
Early  in  the  morning  of  the  same  day  General  Sherman  reached 
Kenesaw  Mountain,  from  the  top  of  which  he  had  a  magnifi- 
cent view  of  a  great  extent  of  nigged  wooded  country  toward 
the  north  and  west.  Toward  Dallas  he  could  see  the  smoke  of 
the  enemy's  camp-fires,  and  a  line  of  smoke  reaching  many  miles 
along  the  railroad  told  him  that  the  Confederates  were  busy 
tearing  up  the  track  and  burning  the  ties.  A  faint  smoke,  too, 
hung  over  Allatoona,  eighteen  miles  away,  and  from  that  direc- 
tion came  to  his  ears  the  dull  boom  of  cannon.  He  had  pre- 
viously telegraphed  to  General  Corse  to  go  from  Rome  with  his 
division  to  the  aid  of  the  garrison  at  Allatoona,  but  now  the 
telegraph  wires  had  all  been  cut  by  the  enemy.  From  the  top 
of  Kenesaw,  however,  his  signal  officers  opened  communica- 
tion with  both  Rome  and  Allatoona,  and  Sherman  soon  got  a 
signal  from  the  latter  place  saying  "  Corse  is  here."  He  sig- 
nalled back,  "Hold  the  fort.  I  am  coming  with  reinforce- 
ments;" and  Corse  answered,  "I  will  do  it."  "He  will  hold 
on,"  said  Sherman;  "  I  know  the  man  well." 


470 


ATLANTA   CAMPAIGN. 


[1861 


The  method  of  signalling  used  during  the  war  was  invented 
by  General  Albert  J.  Myer,  who  was  the  head  of  the  Signal 
Service  of  the  United  States  from  1860  until  his  death  (1880). 
After  the  war  he  had  charge  of  all  the  weather-stations  in  the 
United  States,  where  the  changes  of  the  weather  are  watched 
and  telegraphed  to  all  parts  of  the  country.  He  was  sometimes 
called  in  the  newspapers  "  Old  Probabilities."  During  the  war 
signalling  was  done  chiefly  by  flags  in  the  day  and  by  torches  by 
night.  The  service  was  dangerous,  for  the  signal  party  had 
often  to  go  in  advance  of  the  army,  in  places  made  dangerous 


A  Signal  Party. 


by  the  nearness  of  the  enemy.  On  Kenesaw  Mountain  Sher- 
man was  signalling  right  over  the  heads  of  the  enemy,  who 
were  between  him  and  Allatoona.  The  signal-party  may  be 
made  up  of  only  three  men,  an  officer,  a  flagman,  and  an 
orderly  to  hold  the  horses,  as  shown  in  the  picture.  The  officer 
watches  and  reads  the  signals  through  a  telescope,  which  he 
rests  on  the  hilt  of  his  sword.  The  flagman  has  on  his  horse 
(the  black  one)  a  case  to  carry  the  staff  of  his  flag  or  torch  in; 
and  the  orderly  carries  back  of  his  saddle  (see  the  white  horse) 
a  can  of  camphene  or  turpentine  to  fill  the  torch  with.     The 


1864.] 


SIGNALLING. 


471 


flag  may  be  of  any  color  or  shape  which  can  be  seen  well  at  a 
distance. 

Now  suppose  there  is  another  signal  party,  ten  or  fifteen 
miles  away,  on  some  high  place  within  sight  of  the  first  party, 
and  that  the  latter  wishes  to  send  a  message.  The  flagman 
holds  his  flag  upright,  as  in  position  1  of  the  picture  below, 
which  means  "Beady,"  and  the  officer  looks  through  his  tele- 
scope. As  soon  as  he  is  observed  from  the  other  station,  the 
flagman  begins  to  signal.  If  he  wave  his  flag  to  the  ground 
on  his  right  and  bring  it  back  quickly  over  his  head  again,  as 
in  position  2,  the  officer  on  the  distant  station  will  understand 
it  to  mean  the  figure  one  (1);  if  he  wave  to  the  left  and  back 
again,  as  in  position  3,  it  will  mean  figure  two  (2);  and  if  he 
wave  to  the  ground  directly  in  his  front  and  back  again,  as  in 


Signalling  with  Flags. 

position  4,  it  will  mean  figure  three  (3).  We  have  thus  the 
means  of  making  the  figures  1,  2,  and  3,  which  may  be  com- 
bined or  put  together  in  a  great  number  of  ways;  for  instance, 
one  may  easily  signal  123,  231,  1123,  1213,  etc.  Each  flag- 
officer  carries  a  little  book,  called  a  signal  code,  in  which  each 
combination  of  figures  is  given  a  certain  meaning:  thus,  123 
may  mean  "send  troops  at  once,"  "railroad  bridge  burned," 
or  "out  of  pro  visions,"  it  being  understood  that  the  same 
meaning  is  always  given  to  the  same  combination  of  figures  in 
all  the  books,  so  that  each  signal  officer  may  easily  find  it  by 
turning  to  the  number.  Of  course  the  books  are  kept  very 
secret,  and  if  one  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  the 
whole  code  has  to  be  changed  and  new  meanings  given  to  the 
numbers. 

In  signalling  by  night  the  same  motions  are  made  by  means 
of  torches.    Two  torches  are  used — a  foot-torch,  which  is  placed 


472 


ATLANTA   CAMPAIGN. 


[1864. 


on  the  ground  at  the  flagman's  foot,  so  that  the  party  signalled 
may  see  where  he  stands,  and  a  waving  torch,  which  is  used  in 
the  same  way  with  the  flags.  The  torches  are  lamps  filled 
with  camphene  or  turpentine,  and  fitted  with  a  large  wick,  so 
as  to  give  a  bright  light. 

General  Sherman  was  greatly  relieved  to  hear  of  Corse's 
arrival  at  Allatoona,  for  he  knew  that  officer  would  hold  the 
place.  In  the  afternoon  he  received  another  signal  telling  him 
that  the  Confederates  had  been  repulsed,  but  that  Corse  was 
wounded.  His  cheek  bone  and  one  ear  were  shot  away,  but 
he  continued  to  cheer  on  his  men  and  to  give  orders  to  the  last. 
The  enemy  had  badly  damaged  the  railroad,  tearing  it  up  and 
destroying  it  for  eight  miles;  but  Sherman  set  ten  thousand 
men  at  work,  and  in  a  week  it  was  repaired  and  the  trains  were 


Signalling  with  Torches. 

running  again.  The  Confederate  soldiers  began  to  think  it 
was  of  little  use  to  tear  up  tracks  and  burn  bridges  when  the 
Yankees  could  repair  them  so  easily  and  quickly,  and  it  was 
reported  that  Sherman  carried  along  with  him  duplicates  of  all 
the  bridges  on  the  railroad.  A  story  is  told  of  a  party  of 
"Butternuts"  who  were  lying  under  a  tree,  one  hot  day  in  July, 
when  Sherman  was  advancing  on  Atlanta. 

"Well,"  said  one  of  them,  "the  Yanks  will  have  to  git  up 
and  git  now,  for  I  heard  General  Johnston  himself  say  that 
General  Wheeler  had  blown  up  the  tunnel  near  Dalton,  and 
that  the  Yanks  will  have  to  retreat,  because  they  can  get  no 
more  rations." 

"Nonsense!"  said  a  listener.     "Don't  you  know  that  old 
Sherman  carries  a  duplicate  tunnel  along?" 


1864.]  BURNING   OF  ATLANTA.  473 

General  Sherman  followed  Hood  until  he  became  sure  that 
he  intended  going  into  Tennessee,  and  then,  leaving  Thomas, 
who  was  in  Nashville,  to  attend  to  him,  returned  to  Atlanta 
and  made  preparations  for  his  march  across  Georgia,  to  the 
Atlantic  coast.  The  authorities  in  Washington  were  much 
troubled  at  Hood's  march  northward,  and  even  General  Grant 
thought  that  Sherman  ought  to  destroy  his  army  before  going 
on  his  march;  but  Sherman  believed  that  Hood's  movement 
was  meant  to  draw  him  out  of  Georgia,  and  knowing  that 
Thomas  was  strong  enough  to  keep  the  Confederate  army  from 
doing  much  damage,  he  determined  to  set  out  at  once.  He 
felt  that  his  movement  to  the  Atlantic  was  the  surest  means  of 
striking  a  blow  at  Richmond,  and  he  believed  that  it  would 
end  the  war.  He  had  already  collected  at  Atlanta  a  large 
quantity  of  supjdies,  and  he  now  ordered  all  the  sick  and 
wounded,  the  refugees  and  camp-followers,  and  all  the  artillery 
and  baggage  not  needed,  to  be  sent  back  to  Chattanooga.  The 
railroads  around  Atlanta  were  utterly  destroyed,  and  the  en- 
gines and  cars  and  even  the  rails  were  taken  to  Chattanooga 
for  future  use.  The  garrisons,  too,  of  the  places  south  of 
there  were  sent  back  to  that  post,  and  the  country  made  unfit 
for  the  use  of  the  enemy. 

Before  leaving  Atlanta  all  the  public  property  in  the  city, 
including  the  railroad  station,  machine-shops,  storehouses,  and 
other  buildings  which  had  been  used  by  the  Confederates,  were 
set  on  fire.  In  the  night  the  burning  buildings  presented  a 
grand  and  awful  spectacle,  lighting  up  the  heavens  with  lurid 
flames  and  showers  of  sparks,  and  rolling  away  great  clouds  of 
smoke.  Many  of  the  houses  had  powder  and  loaded  shells 
stored  in  them,  and  the  explosion  of  these  added  to  the  horrors 
of  the  night;  while  above  the  crackling  of  the  flames  and  the 
noise  of  the  bursting  shells  could  be  distinctly  heard  the  grand 
strains  of  the  band  of  the  Thirty-third  Massachusetts.  The 
scene  was  one  to  be  remembered  by  every  man  Avho  witnessed 
it.  The  next  morning  (Nov.  15),  leaving  Atlanta  in  ruins  and 
enveloped  in  a  pall  of  smoke,  the  army  set  out  on  its  great 
march  to  the  sea.  General  Sherman  says  that  as  the  troops 
tramped  out  with  a  cheery  look  and  a  swinging  pace,  that  made 
light  of  the  thousand  miles  between  them  and  Richmond, 
a  military  band  struck  up    "John   Brown's   Body."     "The 


474 


ATLANTA   CAMPAIGN. 


[1864. 


men  caught  up  the  strain,  and  never  before  or  since  have  I 
heard  the  chorus  of  ' Glory,  glory,  hallelujah!'  done  with  more 
spirit  or  in  better  harmony  of  time  and  place."  The  soldiers 
fully  believed  that  they  were  bound  for  Virginia,  and  as 
General  Sherman  rode  with  his  staff  along  the  lines  of  glisten- 
ing bayonets,  many  a  group  called  out  to  him: 

"Uncle  Billy,  I  guess  Grant  is  waiting  for  us  at  Eich- 
mond!" 


After  the  Battle. 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 
MARCH    TO    THE     SEA. 

Anxiety  in  1864.— Grant  and  Lee.— Secretary  Chase  and  the  Finances.— Greenbacks.— 
Gold.— Presidential  Election.— News  from  Atlanta.— Copperheads.— Re-election 
of  Lincoln.— Abolition  of  Slavery. — Hood  Marches  Northward.— Battle  of  Frank- 
lin.—Siege  of  Nashville.— Thomas's  Victory.— Flight  of  Hood.— Sherman's  Army.— 
Orders  for  Foraging.— Jeff.  Davis's  Neckties.— Contrabands.— Dey  say  you's  Massa 
Sherman.— Bummers.— Marching  and  Camping.— Soldiers'  Pets.— Pet  Pigeon.— Old 
Abe,  the  War  Eagle.— Milledgeville.— Beauregard  Again.— Soldiers'  Fun. — Cav- 
alry Skirmishes.— Prison  Pen.— Andersonville.— Torpedoes.— Defences  of  Savannah. 
—Storming  of  Fort  McAllister.— Savannah  as  a  Christmas  Gift. 

a  BEAT  as  was  the  loss  of  Atlanta  to  the  Confederates,  its 
capture  had  far  more  important  results  than  any  we 
have  yet  related.  When  the  glad  news  of  its  fall  was  flashed 
by  the  telegraph  all  over  the  land,  the  hearts  of  the  people 
were  sad,  and  many  of  the  best  men  had  begun  to  despair  of  the 
Union.  The  summer  of  1864  was  the  darkest  in  the  history  of 
the  war.  In  the  spring  Grant's  splendid  army  had  set  out  on 
its  campaign  followed  by  the  hope  and  belief  of  the  people  of 
the  North  that  it  would  soon  end  the  struggle;  but  after  four 
months  of  almost  ceaseless  fighting,  in  which  more  than  a 
hundred  thousand  men  had  fallen,  Lee's  army  was  still  in  its 
front  strong  enough  to  bar  the  way  to  Eichmond.  Nay,  so 
sure  was  the  Confederate  leader  of  his  ability  to  keep  back 
Grant,  that  he  had  felt  able  at  the  same  time  to  invade  Penn- 
sylvania and  even  to  attack  the  defences  of  Washington. 
People  began  to  cpiestion  Grant's  ability,  and  to  think  that 
the  fame  he  had  won  in  the  West  was  due  to  good  fortune 
rather  than  to  soldierly  skill. 

Another  source  of  great  anxiety  was  the  condition  of  the 
finances — that  is,  of  the  national  money  matters.  Of  course  a 
great  deal  of  money  was  needed  to  pay  the  cost  of  carrying  on 
the  war,  and  as  the  ordinary  revenues  of  the  government — 
derived  from  customs  duties  and  other  taxes — were  only  suffi- 
cient to  pay  the  expenses  in  time  of  peace,  money  had  to  be 
raised  by  other  means.  When  Mr.  Chase,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  office  in  1861,  he 
found  the  national  finances  in  so  bad  a  Avay  that  it  was  very 


476  MARCH  TO   THE  SEA.  [1864 

difficult  to  borrow  money;  but  he  soon  made  a  change,  and  to 
his  wisdom  and  skill  is  largely  due  the  success  of  the  Union 
over  the  Confederacy.  He  succeeded  in  borrowing  large 
amounts  of  money,  partly  in  this  country  and  partly  in 
Europe,  which  were  used  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  war.  The 
sum  of  all  these  moneys  makes  up  what  is  called  the  national 
debt,  which  the  United  States  is  now  trying  to  pay  off. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  1861  the  banks  in  all  the  loyal 
States  suspended  specie  payments — that  is,  they  refused  to  pay 
gold  any  longer  for  bank  notes.  In  the  following  spring  (1862) 
Congress  authorized  Mr.  Chase  to  issue  Treasury  notes,  or  paper 
money,  which  should  be  good  for  the  payment  of  debts  through- 
out the  United  States.  These  notes  were  commonly  called 
"greenbacks,"  because  their  backs  were  printed  with  green 
ink.  As  a  paper  dollar  is  worth  a  dollar  only  when  it  can  be 
exchanged  at  any  time  for  a  gold  dollar,  the  value  of  paper 
money  decreased  after  the  suspension  of  specie  payments. 
This  value  was  continually  changing  during  the  war,  going  up 
or  down  according  to  the  prospects  of  success  or  failure.  It  is 
customary  to  speak  of  these  changes  as  changes  in  the  value  of 
gold,  although  it  is  the  paper  money  and  not  the  gold  which 
changes.  Thus,  when  gold  is  said  to  be  worth  120,  it  is  meant 
that  it  will  take  120  paper  dollars  to  buy  100  gold  dollars.  In 
the  beginning  of  1862  gold  was  worth  about  104 — that  is,  it 
took  104  dollars  in  paper  to  buy  100  dollars  in  gold.  .  After 
the  failure  of  McClellan's  campaign  gold  went  up  to  120,  and 
after  Burnside's  disaster  at  Fredericksburg  to  160;  but  after 
the  successes  at  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg  it  fell  to  123.  From 
that  time  it  began  to  rise  again,  until  it  reached  195  after  the 
battles  in  the  Wilderness  (May,  1864).  In  the  next  month  it 
rose  to  252,  and  in  July  to  290,  the  highest  point  reached 
during  the  war.  On  the  last  day  of  June,  Mr.  Chase  resigned 
his  office  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  this  added  to  the 
gloomy  state  of  affairs,  because  people  thought  that  even  he 
despaired  of  bringing  the  war  to  a  successful  end. 

The  year  1864  was  a  Presidential  year,  or  year  for  electing  a 
President.  The  two  great  political  parties  were  still  called 
Republicans  and  Democrats,  but  neither  of  them  was  closely 
united.  In  the  Republican  party  was  a  faction  calling 
themselves  Eadical  Republicans,  who  considered  President  Lin- 


1864.]  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  477 

coin  too  timid  to  deal  with  the  great  questions  of  the  war,  and 
who  wished  to  treat  rebels  more  harshly  and  to  confiscate  all 
their  property  and  give  it  to  the  soldiers.  This  faction  nomi- 
nated John  C.  Fremont  for  President.  The  Eepuhlicans 
proper  renominated  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  in  their  platform 
declared  that  the  Union  must  be  restored,  that  slavery  must 
be  destroyed,  and  that  no  terms  but  unconditional  surrender 
should  be  given  to  those  in  rebellion. 

The  Democratic  Convention  did  not  meet  until  near  the 
end  of  August.  This  was  after  the  dreadful  blunder  of  the 
mine  at  Petersburg  and  Sherman's  repulse  at  Kenesaw,  and 
after  Secretary  Chase's  resignation.  Gold  was  at  290,  the 
public  debt  was  more  than  two  thousand  million  dollars,  and 
in  answer  to  several  efforts  to  bring  about  peace  the  Confed- 
erates had  declared  their  intention  to  fight  until  the  last  man 
fell.  In  the  midst  of  the  general  gloom  brought  about  by  this 
state  of  affairs,  another  draft  for  half  a  million  of  men  was 
called  for.  People  began  to  inquire  what  had  become  of  the 
half  million  called  for  in  the  spring,  and  to  ask  what  was  to  be 
the  end  of  the  struggle  which  was  thus  draining  the  country  of 
men  and  money.  The  Democrats,  influenced  by  the  public 
feeling,  declared  in  their  platform  that  the  war  had  proved  a 
failure,  and  that  efforts  should  be  at  once  made  for  peace  on 
the  basis  of  the  federal  union  of  the  States;  that  the  party  in 
power  had  violated  the  Constitution  and  been  guilty  of  many 
acts  of  oppression  and  tyranny,  and  that  it  was  responsible  for 
the  sufferings  of  the  prisoners  of  war.  On  this  platform  Gen- 
eral McClellan  was  nominated  for  President.  He  accepted  the 
nomination,  although  he  and  many  other  Democrats  did  not 
believe  in  declaring  that  the  war  had  been  a  failure.  They 
were  as  strong  for  the  Union  as  the  other  party,  but  they 
thought  that  the  further  shedding  of  blood  might  be  avoided 
by  making  an  armistice — or  temporary  peace — with  the  Con- 
federates, and  settling  the  questions  in  dispute  quietly. 

On  the  heels  of  the  declaration  that  the  war  had  been  a 
failure  came  the  news  of  the  great  victory  at  Atlanta.  Bells 
were  rung,  cannon  fired,  and  flags  raised;  national  thanks 
were  given  to  Sherman  and  to  Farragut  for  Mobile,  and  a  Na- 
tional thanksgiving  was  called  for  in  all  the  churches.  The 
gloom  was  dispelled  and  gladness  lightened  the  hearts  of  the 


478  MARCH  TO  THE  SEA.  [1864. 

people.  In  Washington  the  party  in  power  were  even  more  joy- 
ful, for  they  had  felt  on  how  slender  a  thread  hung  the  chances 
of  success,  without  which  they  could  scarcely  hope  that  the 
people  would  vote  to  sustain  them.  But  the  news  of  Sher- 
man's success  changed  everything  and  destroyed  the  hopes  of 
the  peace  party.  The  election  for  President  was  a  very  bitter 
one,  and  many  hard  names  were  called  on  both  sides.  The 
Union  men  called  the  Peace  Democrats  "  Copperheads,"  from 
a  poisonous  North  American  snake,  and  this  name  stuck  to 
them  during  the  rest  of  the  war.  General  Fremont  withdrew, 
and  in  the  election  Mr.  Lincoln  was  again  chosen  President  by 
a  large  majority. 

In  the  Congress  which  met  in  Washington  after  the  election 
(Dec,  1864)  was  passed  the  Constitutional  Amendment  forever 
abolishing  slavery  in  the  United  States,  and  it  was  afterward 
ratified  by  the  votes  of  more  than  two  thirds  of  the  States  and 
made  a  part  of  the  Constitution. 

Let  us  now  follow  General  Hood,  who,  under  orders  from 
Richmond,  had  turned  northward,  after  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  to 
invade  Tennessee.  This  was  a  very  silly  movement,  for  it  left 
Sherman  at  liberty  to  march  to  the  Atlantic  with  nothing  to 
oppose  him,  while  Thomas,  who  was  at  Nashville,  was  strong 
enough  to  keep  him  from  doing  much  damage.  "Had  I  had 
the  power,"  wrote  Grant,  "  to  command  both  armies  [that  is, 
Sherman's  and  Hood's],  I  should  not  have  changed  the  orders 
under  which  he  seemed  to  be  acting."  In  ordering  the  move- 
ment, President  Davis  supposed  that  it  would  force  Sherman 
to  leave  Georgia  and  follow  him,  for  fear  of  having  his  line  of 
supplies  cut;  it  never  occurred  to  him  that  Sherman  would  cut 
the  line  himself  and  march  eastward  with  what  supplies  he 
could  carry. 

Though  Hood  lost  many  men  by  desertion,  he  had  on  his 
arrival  at  Florence,  on  the  Tennessee  River  (Nov.  1),  about 
forty  thousand  men,  one  fourth  of  whom  were  cavalry  under 
Forrest.  He  crossed  the  river  about  the  middle  of  November 
and  marched  northward,  General  Schofield,  who  had  gathered 
together  the  garrisons  of  the  different  places  fortified  by  Sher- 
man on  his  way  to  Atlanta,  falling  back  before  him.  Hood 
followed  Schofield  closely,  hoping  to  cut  off  his  retreat.  He 
attacked  him  at  Franklin,  eighteen  miles  south  of  Nashville, 


1864.] 


HOOD  BEFORE  NASHVILLE. 


479 


and  came  near  capturing  his  whole  force,  but  was  finally  re- 
pulsed with  a  loss  of  about  five  thousand  men,  the  Union  loss 
being  only  about  half  as  many.  The  Confederates  lost  several 
generals  in  this  battle,  among  them  General  Cleburne,  who  was 
called  the  Stonewall  Jackson  of  the  West.  During  the  night 
Schofield  retreated,  by  Thomas's  orders,  and  succeeded  in 
reaching  Nashville  by  noon  of  the  next  day.  About  the  same 
time  General  A.  J.  Smith  arrived  from  Missouri  with  part  of 
the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  and  General  Steedman  with  more 
troops  from  Chattanooga,  so  that  Thomas's  army  consisted  of 
about   fifty-six    thousand 


men,  or  more  than  that 
of  Hood. 

The  spirit  of  Hood's 
soldiers  had  been  much 
shattered  by  the  result  of 
the  attack  on  Franklin, 
for  they  had  hoped  to  cut 
off  Schofield  from  Thomas 
and  then  to  drive  the  lat- 
ter out  of  Nashville;  but 
instead  of  that,  Schofield 
had  succeeded  in  check- 
ing their  advance  with 
heavy  loss  and  in  joining 
Thomas,  whom  they  would 
have  to  attack  at  a  disadvantage  behind  earthworks.  But  it  was 
then  too  late  for  regrets,  and  on  the  2d  of  December  Nashville 
was  reached,  and  two  days  later  Hood  had  formed  his  lines  for 
an  attack  on  the  Union  positions.  Cold  weather  came  on, 
with  rain  and  sleet,  which  covered  the  ground  with  ice,  and 
little  was  done  for  more  than  a  week.  Both  sides  suffered 
greatly,  but  the  Confederates  far  the  most,  for  they  were  poorly 
clad  and  not  prepared  for  such  a  change. 

The  delay  was  advantageous  to  General  Thomas,  who, 
though  he  had  more  men  than  Hood,  was  deficient  in  cavalry, 
which  he  needed  for  pursuing  the  enemy  in  case  he  should 
defeat  him.  He  improved  the  cold  weather  in  mounting  his 
men,  and  was  soon  in  good  condition  for  fighting.  In  the 
mean  time  General  Grant,  becoming  impatient  at  Thomas's 


John  M.  Schofield. 


480  MARCH  TO  THE  SEA.  [1864. 

delay  in  attacking  Hood,  who  lie  feared  would  cross  the  Cum- 
berland River  and  give  much  trouble,  had  started  West  to 
superintend  matters  himself ;  but  on  receiving  a  despatch 
announcing  that  Thomas  had  attacked  the  enemy  he  returned, 
satisfied  that  matters  were  going  right. 

General  Thomas  made  his  attack  early  in  the  morning  of 
December  15th.  His  plan  was  for  General  Steedman  to  make 
a  false  attack  on  the  Confederates'  right,  and  under  cover  of  it 
to  move  the  greater  part  of  his  troops  against  their  left.  The 
movement  was  quite  successful.  The  morning  opened  very 
foggy,  and  the  ground  was  so  broken  that  the  Union  troops 
were  on  the  Confederates  almost  before  they  were  aware  that 
an  attack  was  to  be  made.  Hood,  deceived  by  the  assault  on 
his  right,  sent  men  from  his  left  and  centre  to  repel  it.  As 
soon  as  this  took  place,  Generals  Smith  and  Schofield  attacked 
the  enemy's  left  and  forced  it  back  a  considerable  distance, 
capturing  many  prisoners  and  guns.  The  Union  troops  occu- 
pied through  the  night  the  ground  they  had  won,  and  Hood 
reformed  his  lines  along  some  hills  two  or  three  miles  back  of 
his  former  position.  In  the  morning  the  attack  was  renewed, 
and  though  the  Confederates  fought  with  great  bravery  and 
repulsed  the  Unionists  several  times,  their  lines  were  at  last 
broken,  and  they  were  driven  from  all  their  positions,  leaving 
all  their  artillery  and  several  thousand  prisoners  in  General 
Thomas's  hands.  The  Confederates  fled  in  a  panic,  many 
throwing  away  their  arms  and  everything  that  would  impede 
their  flight. 

Thomas's  cavalry,  under  General  James  H.  Wilson,  pursued 
toward  Franklin.  Hood  made  a  stand  there,  but  was  again 
driven  southward.  A  vigorous  pursuit  was  kept  up,  but  rain 
soon  came  on,  flooding  the  streams,  followed  by  very  cold 
weather,  which  froze  the  roads  in  ruts  and  made  them  almost 
impassable.  Hood  and  the  remnant  of  his  wretched  army, 
many  of  his  men  shoeless  and  hatless,  and  all  suffering  for  want 
of  proper  food,  fled  toward  the  Tennessee,  leaving  their  path 
strewn  with  broken  wagons,  small-arms,  blankets,  and  every- 
thing else  they  could  throw  away.  The  sick  were  left  by  the 
roadside,  and  hundreds  deserted  and  begged  for  mercy  from 
their  pursuers.  At  last  Hood  was  joined  by  Forrest's  cavalry, 
which  had  been  off  on  a  raid  during  the  battles  around  Nash- 


1864] 


HOODS  RETREAT. 


481 


yille.  Forrest  formed  a  rear  guard  and  kept  off  the  Union 
pursuers,  and  the  Confederates  finally  succeeded  in  crossing  the 
Tennessee  Eiver  and  reaching  Tupelo,  in  Mississippi.  Hood 
was  much  blamed  for  his  conduct  of  the  campaign,  and  he  was 
relieved  of  command,  at  his  own  request,  in  the  following 
January.  His  army  had  been  almost  entirely  destroyed. 
Thomas  had  taken  during  the  campaign  about  thirteen  thou- 
sand prisoners,  seventy-two  cannons,  and  many  small-arms. 
The  whole  Union  loss  had  been  about  ten  thousand,  or  less 
than  half  that  of  the  Confederates,  the  number  of  whose  killed 
and  wounded  is  unknown. 

General  Sherman's  faith  in  Thomas  had  not  been  mis- 
placed. When  he  divided 
his  army  in  two  parts  at 
Atlanta,  he  had  calcu- 
lated that  the  part  sent  to 
Nashville  under  Thomas 
would  be  able  to  take  care 
of  Hood,  while  he  him- 
self marched  with  the 
other  portion  through  the 
Confederacy.  We  have 
seen  how  Thomas  did  his 
share  of  the  work:  let  us 
now  follow  Sherman  on 
his  march  to  the  sea. 
The  army  which  left  At- 
lanta (Nov.  15)  num- 
bered sixty-two  thousand  men,  five  thousand  of  whom  were 
cavalry,  and  about  two  thousand  artillery,  with  sixty-five  guns. 
These  were  all  men  fit  for  duty,  for  great  efforts  had  been 
made  to  weed  out  all  the  sick  and  weak  persons.  The  whole 
force  was  divided  into  two  wings:  the  right  wing,  commanded 
by  Major-General  0.  0.  Howard,  was  formed  of  the  Fifteenth 
Corps,  under  Major-General  P.  J.  Osterhaus,  and  the  Seven- 
teenth Corps,  under  Major-General  Frank  P.  Blair;  the  left 
wing,  commanded  by  Major-General  H.  W.  Slocum,  was  formed 
of  the  Fourteenth  Corps,  under  Major-General  Jefferson  C. 
Davis,  and  the  Twentieth  Corps,  under  Brigadier-General 
A.  S.  Williams.     The  cavalry,  which  formed  a  separate  divi- 


George  H.  Thomas. 


482 


MARCH  TO   THE  SEA. 


[1864. 


sion,  was  commanded  bj  Brigadier-General  Judson  Kilpatrick. 
The  wagons  taken  were  laden  only  with  provisions  and  ammu- 
nition. There  were  thousands  of  mules  with  the  expedition, 
for  each  one  of  the  twenty-five  hundred  wagons  was  drawn  by 
six,  and  there  were  also  many  pack  mules  laden  with  camp 
baggage  and  all  the  kitchenware  needed  for  cooking.  Orders 
were  given  to  forage  on  the  country  during  the  march — that  is, 
to  take  corn,  oats,  and  other  food  for  the  horses  and  cattle,  and 
meat  and  vegetables  for  the  men.  But  soldiers  were  forbidden 
to  enter  dwellings  or  to  commit  any  trespass  on  private  prop- 
erty, the  foraging  being  done  by  parties  selected  for  the  pur- 
pose. These  parties  were 
~..V%^^M0§<      ,;  Ha      also    instructed    to    take 


also    instructed    to 
horses,  mules,  and  wag- 
ons when  needed. 

As  the  army  marched 
eastward  the  railroad  was 
torn  up,  the  cross-ties  be- 
|  ing  burned,  and  the  rails 
being  twisted  into  Jeff 
Davis's  neckties  (see  p. 
416).  The  blazing  of 
these  bonfires  along  the 
railroad  and  of  the  watch- 
Pack  Mules.  f  reg   jn    the    great    pine 

forests  by  night,  with  the  groups  of  soldiers  flitting  among  the 
trees,  made  a  very  picturesque  scene.  In  passing  through 
towns  the  soldiers  closed  up  their  ranks,  the  color-bearers 
unfurled  their  flags,  and  the  bands  played  patriotic  airs.  The 
people,  white  and  black,  came  out  to  see  the  sights.  The 
negroes  were  frantic  with  joy,  and  ran  after  General  Sherman 
in  crowds,  shouting  and  singing.  All  wanted  to  follow  the 
army,  but  Sherman  told  them  that  they  could  do  him  no  good, 
and  would  only  eat  the  food  needed  for  the  soldiers.  He  ex- 
jilained  to  them  that  his  success  would  give  them  their  free- 
dom, and  that  they  could  best  aid  him  by  staying  quietly  in 
their  homes  and  await  the  defeat  of  the  enemy.  Though  thou- 
sands followed  him  to  the  coast,  most  of  the  negroes  took  his 
good  advice  and  remained  on  the  plantations.  We  shall  see 
hereafter  how  General   Sherman  was   blamed  for  not  taking 


1864.]  SHERMAN'S  BUMMERS.  483 

with  him  all  the  negroes  he  found,  and  how  the  politicians 
tried  to  make  out  that  he  did  not  favor  the  freeing  of  the 
slaves. 

One  evening  when  Sherman  was  sitting  in  deep  thought  by 
a  fire  in  a  log  cabin,  he  suddenly  became  conscious  that  an 
old  negro  with  a  tallow  candle  in  his  hand  was  watching  him 
closely. 

"What  do  you  want,  old  man?"  he  asked,  looking  up. 

"Dey  say  you's  Massa  Sherman/'  answered  the  old  man. 

General  Sherman  told  him  they  were  right,  and  again  asked 
what  he  wanted.  But  he  only  wanted  to  look  at  him,  and  he 
kept  on  studying  his  face  and  muttering  to  himself,  "  Dis 
nigger  can't  sleep  dis  night." 

General  Sherman  asked  him  why  he  trembled  so,  and  he 
said  he  wanted  to  be  certain  that  they  were  "  sure  'nuff  Yan- 
kees." A  while  before,  he  said,  some  Confederate  cavalry  with 
blue  overcoats  on  had  passed  themselves  off  for  Yankees,  and 
some  of  the  negroes  who  had  been  deceived  had  been  beaten  for 
showing  them  sympathy. 

Each  day  of  the  march  was  much  like  the  preceding  one. 
Soldiers,  teamsters,  and  camp-followers  were  up  with  the  dawn, 
awakened  by  the  bugle  sounding  the  reveille.  Fresh  wood  was 
piled  on  smouldering  camp-fires,  breakfast  Avas  cooked  and 
eaten,  the  horses  and  mules  meanwhile  crunching  their  corn 
and  fodder;  then  came  the  harnessing  of  teams,  the  buckling 
on  of  knapsacks  and  the  shouldering  of  guns,  and  the  soldiers 
fell  cheerily  into  line  for  another  stage  of  their  journey.  As 
they  tramped  along,  the  flankers  ahead  searched  the  woods  and 
swamps  for  concealed  enemies,  and  often  the  sharp  crack  of 
rifles  told  that  a  squad  of  Confederates  had  been  driven  out  of 
their  hiding-places.  Meanwhile  the  parties  of  foragers,  or 
"  bummers,"  as  they  were  called,  visited'  the  plantations  and 
collected  grain,  fodder,  poultry,  and  vegetables.  Some  of  these 
parties  used  to  go  miles  away  into  the  country,  and  Avould 
return  laden  Avith  all  kinds  of  poultry,  pigs,  sheep,  calves, 
hams,  baskets  of  honey,  and  pots  of  butter  and  lard.  As  the 
wagons  passed  along,  these  things  Avere  stoAved  in  as  quickly  as 
possible,  the  teams  not  being  allowed  to  pause — for  the  stop- 
ping of  one  wagon  would  cause  a  stoppage  of  the  Avhole  line, 
Avhich  Avas  more  than  thirty  miles  long.     "When  a  halt  was  to 


484 


MARCH  TO   TEE  SEA. 


[1864. 


be  made,  the  order  was  given  by  sound  of  bugle.  Then  the 
teams  all  stopped  for  a  breathing  spell,  the  soldiers  broke 
ranks,  stacked  muskets,  and  unstrapped  knapsacks,  and  while 
some  stretched  out  on  the  grass  by  the  roadside,  munching 

hardtack  or  smoking  pipes, 
others  sought  a  brook  to 
wash  themselves  or  made  a 
hasty  cup  of  coffee.  Soon 
the  bugle  sounded  "  For- 
ward" again,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  the  boys  were  in 
line  and  once  more  on  the 
march. 

Ten  or  fifteen  miles  a 
day  were  passed  in  this  way, 
when  a  final  halt  was  made 
for  the  night,  and  the  troops 
went  into  camp.  The  place 
had  been  selected  beforehand 
by  officers,  who  chose,  when 
possible,  slopes  near  wood 
and  water.  The  leading 
division  of  soldiers  stopped 
first,  those  behind  them 
passing  them  and  taking  the 
next  place,  and  those  in  the 
rear  going  still  farther  on, 
so  as  to  take  their  turn  in 
the  advance  next  day. 

Major  Nichols,  in  his 
"  Story  of  the  Great  March," 
gives  a  fine  picture  of  the 
camp  at  night: 

"  As  soon  as  the  arms  are 
stacked  the  boys  attack  the 
fences  and  rail  piles,  and  with  incredible  swiftness  their  little 
shelter-tents  spring  up  all  over  the  ground.  The  fires  are 
kindled  with  equal  celerity,  and  the  luxurious  repast  is  pre- 
pared. After  this  is  heard  the  music  of  dancing  or  singing, 
the  pleasant  buzz  of  conversation,  and  the  measured  sound  of 


Sherman's  March  from  Atlanta  to 
the  Sea. 


1864]  SOLDIERS'  PETS.  485 

reading.      The   wagons,    meanwhile,   are    parked,*    and    the 
animals  fed. 

"  By  and  by  the  tattoo  rings  out  on  the  night  air.  Its 
familiar  sound  is  understood.  '  Go  to  rest,  go  to  rest,'  it  says 
as  plainly  as  organs  of  human  speech. 

"  Shortly  after  follows  the  peremptory  command  of  '  taps ' — 
'  out  lights,  out  lights.'  The  soldier  gradually  disappears  from 
the  camp-fire;  rolled  snugly  in  his  blanket  he  dreams  again  of 
home.  The  animals,  with  dull  instinct,  lie  down  to  rest.  The 
fires,  neglected  by  the  sleeping  men,  go  out,  gradually  flicker- 
ing and  smouldering,  as  if  unwilling  to  die.  All  is  quiet — the 
army  is  asleep.  Perhaps  there  is  a  brief  interruption  to  the 
silence  as  some  trooper  goes  clattering  down  the  road  on  an 
errand  of  speed,  or  some  uneasy  sleeper  turns  over  to  find  an 
easier  position.  And  around  the  slumbering  host  the  picket- 
guards  keep  quiet  watch." 

All  soldiers  love  pets,  and  many  of  the  regiments  were 
accompanied  on  the  march  by  one  or  more  animals,  of  which 
the  men  took  the  best  of  care.  Among  these  common  pets 
were  dogs,  cats,  goats,  cocks,  and  even  pigeons  and  eagles. 
The  four-legged  animals  trotted  quietly  along  beside  their 
friends,  while  the  birds  generally  travelled  in  a  wagon  or 
perched  on  a  cannon  or  the  back  of  a  mule.  Game-cocks  were 
especial  favorites,  and  often  the  pets  of  different  regiments 
would  be  pitted  against  each  other  in  a  fight.  The  winners  in 
these  combats  were  greatly  prized  and  were  given  such  names 
as  Billy  Sherman  and  Johnny  Logan,  while  the  defeated  would 
be  dubbed  Jeff  Davis  or  Beauregard,  and  doomed  to  supply  the 
mess. 

The  keeping  of  pet  animals  was  not  peculiar  to  the  men  of 
Sherman's  army,  but  was  a  common  thing  among  the  soldiers 
both  in  the  East  and  the  West.  In  the  early  part  of  the  war  a 
teamster  of  the  Forty-second  New  York  had  a  pet  pigeon, 
which  followed  the  train  to  which  he  belonged  everywhere  it 
went.  It  would  often  fly  away  great  distances,  but  Avould 
always  come  back  at  night  and  go  to  roost  in  the  teamster's 
wagon,  where  a  place  was  provided  for  it.     The  men  of  the 

*  To  park  wagons  or  artillery  is  to  put  them  all  together  in  one  body 
or  place,  where  they  can  be  more  easily  guarded  than  when  scattered. 


486  MARCH  TO  THE  SEA,  [1864 

regiment  soon  grew  much  attached  to  it,  and  it  became  a 
general  favorite  with  all.  It  followed  the  army  to  Fortress 
Monroe  and  to  Yorktown,  where  it  used  to  fly  far  beyond  the 
enemy's  works.  Thence  it  went  all  through  the  Peninsula 
campaign  and  then  to  Antietam  and  Harper's  Ferry,  witness- 
ing every  battle  fought  by  the  regiment.  It  escaped  the  bullets 
which  cut  down  many  of  its  friends,  and  the  teamster  finally 
sent  it  home,  where,  it  is  hoped,  it  was  well  cared  for. 

Another  famous  pet  was  the  splendid  eagle,  "  Old  Abe," 
carried  throughout  the  war  by  the  soldiers  of  the  Eighth 
Wisconsin.  It  was  given  to  the  regiment  in  1SG1,  when  it  was 
organizing  at  Camp  Randall,  at  Madison,  and  was  borne  at  its 
head  in  many  of  the  hardest-fought  battles  in  the  West,  such 
as  Donelson,  Vicksburg,  Chickamauga,  and  Chattanooga. 
During  a  fight  it  was  generally  to  be  seen  sitting  on  its  pole 
at  the  head  of  Company  D,  but  it  would  often  fly  off  over  the 
heads  of  the  enemy,  then  return  and  seat  itself  on  its  perch, 
flapping  its  wings  and  screaming  as  if  in  delight  at  the  carnage. 
The  louder  the  roar  of  battle,  the  wilder  and  fiercer  were  the 
screams  of  the  eagle.  The  soldiers  were  encouraged  by  its 
presence,  and  many  and  hearty  were  the  cheers  which  greeted 
it  as  it  came  back  to  them  after  a  review  of  the  battle-field. 
Old  Abe  was  twice  hit  by  bullets,  at  one  time  having  about  a 
third  of  its  tail  feathers  shot  away,  but  went  safe  through  the 
war.  When  the  Eighth  returned  home,  its  famous  pet  was 
given  comfortable  quarters  in  a  room  in  the  basement  of  the 
State  Capitol,  at  Madison,  where  it  died  in  the  spring  of  1881. 
On  the  23d  of  November,  General  Sherman  rode  into 
Milledgeville,  the  capital  of  Georgia.  Most  of  the  people 
remained  in  their  houses,  but  the  Governor  and  other  State 
officers  and  the  members  of  the  Legislature  had  fled.  General 
Sherman  made  his  headquarters  in  the  "  Governor's  Mansion," 
which  he  found  nearly  stripped  of  carpets,  curtains,  and  furni- 
ture, the  patriotic  Governor  having  carried  off  in  his  flight  even 
the  vegetables  from  the  kitchen  garden,  leaving  behind  his 
muskets  and  ammunition.  From  newspapers  found  in  the  city 
Sherman  learned  how  much  consternation  his  march  had 
caused  throughout  the  South.  Their  columns  were  filled  too 
with  appeals  to  the  people,  calling  upon  them  to  rise  and 
destroy  the  invaders.     "Let  every  man  fly  to  arms!     Remove 


1864.]  MILLEN  PRISON.  487 

your  negroes,  horses,  cattle,  and  provisions  from  Sherman's 
army,  and  burn  what  you  cannot  carry.  Burn  all  bridges  and 
block  up  the  roads  in  his  route.  Assail  the  invader  in  front, 
flank,  and  rear,  by  night  and  by  day.  Let  him  have  no  rest." 
Beauregard,  who  commanded  in  the  Department,  issued  a 
proclamation  calling  upon  all  to  arise  against  the  enemy,  and 
closing  with,  "I  hasten  to  join  you  in  the  defence  of  your 
homes  and  firesides."  But  the  people  had  lost  confidence  in 
Beauregard  and  in  the  Confederacy.  Few  responded  to  the 
appeal,  and  those  who  did  seemed  to  have  little  heart  in  the 
business,  and  made  but  feeble  resistance.  Nor  did  the  people 
destroy  the  food  in  the  track  of  the  army,  for  they  knew  that 
it  would  only  result  in  ruin  to  themselves  and  their  property. 

While  in  Milledgeville  some  of  the  soldiers  gathered  in  the 
Hall  of  Representatives  in  the  State  Capitol,  calling  themselves 
the  Georgia  Legislature,  and  had  much  fun  in  electing  a  Speaker 
and  in  voting  to  repeal  the  Act  of  Secession.  Little  damage 
Avas  done  to  private  property  in  the  city,  but  the  Arsenal  and 
other  public  buildings  of  which  hostile  use  could  be  made  were 
destroyed. 

On  leaving  Milledgeville  (Nov.  24),  Kilpatrick's  cavalry 
moved  toward  Waynesborough,  and  Wheeler's  Confederate 
cavalry,  thinking  they  were  going  to  Augusta  to  destroy  the 
arsenal  and  workshops  there,  turned  northward  to  head  them 
off.  This  enabled  Sherman  to  cross  the  Ogechee  River  with- 
out fighting.  Kilpatrick  had  many  skirmishes  Avith  Wheeler's 
men,  in  which  he  was  generally  successful.  On  the  3d  of 
December,  General  Sherman  entered  Millen,  a  town  on  the 
Central  Railroad,  running  from  Macon  to  Savannah,  and  the 
site  of  one  of  the  principal  prisons  for  Union  captives.  General 
Sherman  hoped  to  get  there  in  time  to  release  the  prisoners, 
but  unfortunately  they  had  all  been  removed  elsewhere.  The 
prison  pen,  wherein  so  many  thousand  captives  had  languished 
and  died,  still  remained  to  rouse  the  anger  of  the  soldiers.  It 
was  a  stockade,  about  three  hundred  feet  square,  built  of  logs 
driven  into  the  ground,  and  had  sentry-boxes  along  the  tops 
for  the  convenience  of  the  guards;  but  no  shelter  whatever  was 
provided  for  the  poor  prisoners,  who  had  been  obliged  to  bur- 
row holes  in  the  ground  to  protect  themselves  from  sun,  rain, 
and  frost.     A  little  way  from  the  palisade,  inside,  was  a  rail 


488 


3TABCH  TO  THE  SEA. 


[1864 


fence,  beyond  which  no  one  was  allowed  to  pass.  It  was  called 
the  "  dead  line,"  for  the  guards  were  ordered  to  shoot  down 
any  prisoner  who  went  beyond  it. 

Part  of  Sherman's  troops  passed,  on  the  great  march,  within 
sixty  or  seventy  miles  of  Andersonville,  the  site  of  a  still 
larger  prison  pen  than  the  one  at  Millen,  and  far  more  noto- 
rious in  the  history  of  the  war.  It  was  built  in  the  same 
manner,  but  covered  many  acres  of  ground,  and  was  surrounded 
by  earthworks  mounted  with  cannon,  to  aid  in  quelling  any 
attempt  of  the  captives  to  escape.  The  first  prisoners  were 
put  in  it  in  February,  1864,  and  between  that  time  and  April, 
1865,  nearly  fifty  thousand  men  were  sent  there  from  all  parts 


Prison  Pen  at  Millen. 


of  the  Confederacy.  There  were  as  many  as  thirty-three  thou- 
sand men  shut  within  the  stockade  at  one  time,  and  more  than 
twelve  thousand  died  from  diseases  brought  on  by  exposure, 
filth,  and  bad  water  and  food.  The  Confederates  say  that  the 
authorities  in  Washington  were  responsible  for  all  the  suffer- 
ings endured  by  the  prisoners  in  their  hands,  "because  they 
refused  to  exchange  them  for  Confederate  captives  in  Northern 
prisons  (see  Chap.  XXXV.);  that  the  place  selected  for  the 
prison  at  Andersonville  was  as  healthful  as  any  iti  Georgia, 
and  that  those  confined  in  it  received  the  same  food  as  their 
guards.  But  after  the  close  of  the  war  (Aug.,  1865)  a  military 
commission  was  appointed  by  the  Secretary  of  War  to  try 
Major  Wirz,  the  superintendent  of  the  prison,  and  he  was 


1864.]  TORPEDOES.  489 

found  guilty  of  injuring  the  health  of  the  prisoners  by  keeping 
them  in  unhealthy  quarters,  where  they  had  no  shelter  either 
in  summer  or  winter,  by  compelling  them  to  use  bad  water  and 
by  furnishing  them  with  poor  and  insufficient  food,  and  hung 
for  his  crime  (Nov.  10,  1865). 

From  Milieu,  Sherman  marched  rapidly  on  toward  Savannah. 
The  roads  were  good,  the  weather  fine,  and  the  soldiers  in 
capital  spirits,  and  fifteen  miles  a  day  were  made  with  ease. 
The  cavalry  skirmished  frequently  with  bodies  of  the  enemy, 
but  the  infantry  found  no  foes  in  their  way.  When  within 
fifteen  miles  of  Savannah,  however,  the  roads  leading  into  the 
city  were  found  barricaded  with  felled  trees,  and  in  some  places 
with  earthworks  defended  by  artillery.  Several  men  were 
wounded  by  the  explosion  of  torpedoes  buried  in  the  ground. 
General  Sherman  tells  of  one  poor  young  officer  whose  horse 
had  been  killed  and  whose  foot  had  been  blown  off  by  one  of 
these  infernal  machines.  "  This  was  not  war,  but  murder," 
he  writes,  "and  it  made  me  very  angry.  I  immediately  ordered 
a  lot  of  rebel  prisoners  to  be  brought  from  the  provost-guard, 
armed  with  picks  and  spades,  and  made  them  inarch  in  close 
order  along  the  road,  so  as  to  explode  their  own  torpedoes,  or 
to  discover  and  dig  them  up.  They  begged  hard,  but  I 
reiterated  the  order,  and  could  hardly  help  laughing  at  their 
stepping  so  gingerly  along  the  road,  where  it  was  supposed 
sunken  torpedoes  might  explode  at  each  step." 

Savannah  was  found  to  be  defended  on  the  land  side  by 
lines  of  earthworks,  with  deep  ditches,  canals,  and  bayous  full 
of  water.  The  country  around  it  is  swampy,  and  the  city  could 
be  approached  only  by  narrow  roads.  General  Hardee,  a  good 
soldier,  was  in  command,  with  a  garrison  of  fifteen  thousand 
men,  and  Sherman  feared  that  he  would  have  to  sit  down  to  a 
regular  siege.  The  first  thing  to  be  done  was  to  open  com- 
munication with  the  fleet,  which  Sherman  supposed  to  be 
awaiting  him  with  supplies- in  Ossabaw  Sound,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Ogechee  River;  but  he  was  prevented  from  going  down 
the  river  by  Fort  McAllister,  which,  it  will  be  remembered, 
stood  a  few  miles  above  its  mouth  (see  page  388).  In  the 
night  of  December  9th  three  Union  scouts,  who  had  got 
through  the  enemy's  lines  by  hiding  in  the  rice-fields,  paddled 
by  Fort  McAllister  in  a  canoe,  and  boarded  the  gunboat  Flag 


490  THE  MARCH  TO   THE  SEA.  [1864. 

in  the  river  below.  They  bore  a  despatch  from  General  Howard, 
saying,  "  We  have  had  perfect  success,  and  the  army  is  in  fine 
spirits."  This  was  the  first  news  received  directly  from  Sher- 
man's army  after  it  left  Atlanta,  though  tidings  of  its  progress 
through  Georgia  had  been  obtained  from  time  to  time  from 
Confederate  newspapers  ;  but  they  had  generally  represented 
t*he  expedition  as  a  failure,  and  the  army,  defeated  and  starv- 
ing, as  fleeing  to  the  coast  for  safety. 

Sherman  now  sent  General  Hazen  to  take  Fort  McAllister 
by  storm.  He  himself  rode  down  the  Ogechee  River  to  a  rice- 
mill,  on  the  top  of  which  General  Howard  had  established  a 
signal-station.  From  this  point  the  Confederate  flag  could  be 
plainly  seen  flying  over  the  fort,  which  was  only  about  three 
miles  distant,  across  a  salt-marsh.  About  two  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  (Dec.  13)  he  signalled  to  General  Hazen  that  he  ex- 
pected the  fort  to  be  taken  before  night,  and  Hazen  answered 
that  he  would  soon  make  the  attack.  Just  then  a  steamer  was 
discovered  coming  up  the  river  below  the  fort,  and  soon  the 
United  States  flag  was  seen  flying  at  her  peak.  About  an  hour 
before  sunset  General  Hazen  signalled  that  he  was  all  ready. 
Sherman  answered  "Go  ahead,"  and  at  the  same  time  the 
steamer  signalled  "  Who  are  you?"  The  flags  answered  "  Gen- 
eral Sherman."  Then  came  the  question,  "  Is  Fort  McAllister 
taken?"  "Not  yet,"  was  the  reply,  "but  it  will  be  in  a 
minute." 

The  next  moment  Hazen's  troops  were  seen  moving  out  of 
the  woods  and  advancing  toward  the  fort.  The  great  guns 
were  seen  to  open  on  them,  and  they  were  lost  in  clouds  of 
smoke.  But  in  a  few  minutes  the  firing  stopped,  the  smoke 
cleared  away,  and  the  Avails  of  the  fort  were  alive  with  blue- 
coats,  while  the  Confederate  flag  gave  way  to  the  Stars  and 
Stripes.  "  Fort  McAllister  is  taken"  was  signalled  to  the 
steamer,  from  which  the  woods  had  cut  off  a  view  of  the  fort. 

The  capture  of  McAllister  permitted  the  opening  of  the 
river,  and  supplies  were  then  drawn  from  the  ships  of  the 
fleet,  which  was  under  command  of  Admiral  Dahlgren.  Gene- 
ral Sherman  also  got  some  heavy  rifled  guns  from  General 
Foster,  then  in  command  at  Port  Royal,  and  put  them  in 
position  for  bombarding  Savannah.  But  during  the  night  of 
December  20  General  Hardee  evacuated  the  city  with  his  troops, 


1864.] 


A   CHRISTMAS  GIFT. 


491 


moving  toward  Charleston,  and  the  next  morning  the  Union 
troops  took  possession.  Sherman  wrote  to  the  President:  "I 
beg  to  present  you  as  a  Christmas  gift  the  city  of  Savannah, 
with  one  hundred  and  fifty  heavy  guns  and  plenty  of  ammuni- 
tion; also  about  twenty-five  thousand  bales  of  cotton."  This 
message  reached  the  President  on  Christmas  eve,  and  being 
published  in  the  newspapers  the  next  morning,  carried  joy 
throughout  the  country. 

The  great  march  of  three  hundred  miles  had  occupied 
twenty-seven  days.  An  immense  amount  of  damage  had  been 
done  to  the  enemy,  estimated  by  General  Sherman  at  a  hundred 
million  dollars,  including  the  value  of  the  railroads,  of  which 
three  hundred  and  twenty  miles  had  been  destroyed.  The 
country  through  which  the  army  had  passed  had  been  stripped 
of  its  food  for  thirty  miles  each  side  of  a  line  between  Atlanta 
and  Savannah,  and  more  than  ten  thousand  horses  and  mules 
had  been  carried  away.  The  entire  loss  of  the  Union  army  had 
been  only  seven  hundred  and  sixty-four,  while  nearly  twice  as 
many  prisoners  had  been  taken  from  the  Confederates. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 
SAVANNAH   TO   GOLDSBORO. 

Secretary  Stanton  in  Savannah.— Politics.— Sherman  Disgusted.— Expedition  against 
Fort  Fisher.— Butler's  Powder-Boat.— Heavy  Bombardment.— General  Terry  suc- 
ceeds Butler.— Bragg  again.— Goodby,  Wilmington  !— Capture  of  Fort  Fisher.— 
General  Schofield.— Wilmington  Taken.— Goldsboro  Entered.— Sherman's  March 
from  Savannah.— Wheeler  and  Hampton.— Floods.— The  Salkehatchie.— Horrors 
of  War- South  Carolina  Punished.— Cotton  Burning.— Columbia  Surrendered  — 
Burning  of  the  City.— Confederate  Money.— Haedee  Evacuates  Charleston.— The 
City  in  Flames.— Desolation.— Sumter  and  the  Flag.— Jus'  look  at  his  Hoss.— 
Cheravy. — Johnston  again  in  Command.— Hampton  a>d  Kilpatrick.— Fayetteyille.— 
Averysboro.— Battle  of  Bentonsville.— Goldsboro.— Sherman  Visits  Grant.— Presi- 
dent Llncoln.— Sherman  Returns  to  Goldsboro. 

GENERAL  SHERMAN  had  scarcely  settled  himself  in  his 
quarters  in  Savannah  before  politicians  from  Washington 
began  to  flock  thither  to  see  what  they  could  make  out  of  the 
situation.  Mr.  Stanton,  the  Secretary  of  War,  was  among  the 
first  of  these.  He  stayed  in  the  city  several  days,  asked  General 
Sherman  many  questions  about  the  negroes,  and  even  had  inter- 
views with  their  preachers,  and  inquired  what  they  thought  of 
Sherman.  The  question  of  giving  votes  to  the  negroes  had 
even  then  begun  to  be  discussed,  and  Mr.  Stanton  was  anxious 
to  find  out  whether  General  Sherman  was  favorable  to  the 
plans  of  the  party  in  power.  General  Sherman  thought  it  very 
strange  that  one  of  the  heads  of  the  Government  should  ques- 
tion "negroes  concerning  the  character  of  a  general  who  had 
commanded  a  hundred  thousand  men  in  battle,  had  captured 
cities,  conducted  sixty-five  thousand  men  successfully  across 
four  hundred  miles  of  hostile  territory,  and  had  just  brought 
tens  of  thousands  of  freedmen  to  a  place  of  security."  But 
Sherman  was  a  plain,  straightforward  soldier,  wrhose  aim  was, 
as  he  himself  says,  "  to  whip  the  rebels."  He  had  much  sym- 
pathy for  the  negroes,  and  he  had  done  all  he  could  to  aid 
them,  but  he  had  no  interest  in  the  attempt  to  use  them  as  a 
political  machine.  It  is  not  therefore  wonderful  that  he  should 
have  been  surprised  at  Mr.  Stanton's  course,  nor  that  he  should 
have  made  up  his  mind  that  the  Secretary's  solicitude  for  the 
blacks  was  prompted  not  by  humanity  but  by  politics.  It  was 
perhaps  fortunate  for  General  Sherman  that  his  field  of  service 


.]  FORT  FISHER.  403 

had  been  in  the  West,  out  of  reach  of  the  politicians  who  had 
been  so  successful  in  breaking  down  McClellan  and  other  able 
generals  whose  popularity  had  aroused  their  jealousy.  Sher- 
man soon  saw  his  danger,  and  was  anxious  to  get  away  into  the 
pine  woods  again,  where  he  would  be  free  from  political  trick- 
sters and  from  the  crowd  of  cotton-buyers  and  traders  who 
were  daily  nocking  into  Savannah. 

General  Grant  wished  Sherman  to  take  his  army  by  sea  to 
the  James  Eiver  to  aid  him  against  Richmond;  but  Sherman's 
plan  was  to  march  northward  through  South  Carolina  and 
Nbrth  Carolina,  and  Grant  finally  consented  to  it.  But  it  was 
determined  to  make  an  attempt  first  to  capture  Wilmington, 
on  the  Cape  Fear  Eiver,  in  North  Carolina,  which  was  then  the 
only  port  remaining  to  the  Confederacy.  The  navy  had  tried 
hard  to  close  it,  but  Fort  Fisher,  its  chief  defence,  was  very 
strong,  and  blockade-runners  could  not  be  kept  from  entering 
the  port  while  it  was  in  possession  of  the  enemy.  A  great  fleet 
of  war-vessels  under  Admiral  Porter  was  therefore  collected  at 
Fortress  Monroe,  as  well  as  many  transports  for  carrying  the 
troops,  which  were  to  be  commanded  by  General  Godfrey 
Weitzel.  The  whole  expedition  was  under  General  Butler. 
Fort  Fisher  was  near  the  end  of  a  narrow  peninsula  which 
separates  Cape  Fear  River  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Butler 
had  formed  a  plan  of  loading  a  vessel  with  gunpowder,  running 
it  ashore  near  the  fort,  and  exploding  it,  believing  that  it 
would  either  destroy  the  work  altogether  or  so  paralyze  the 
garrison  that  the  troops  could  easily  take  it.  The  powder-boat 
was  prepared  and  stored  with  two  hundred  and  fifteen  tons  of 
gunpowder.  The  expedition  started  on  the  13th  of  December, 
but  a  violent  storm  caused  much  delay,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  night  of  the  23d  when' the  powder-boat  was  anchored  about 
three  hundred  yards  from  the  fort.  The  vessel  was  disguised 
as  a  blockade-runner,  and  the  fort  therefore  did  not  fire  upon 
her.  When  the  crew  left  her  they  set  fire  to  a  pile  of  pine 
wood  in  her  cabin,  lighted  some  candles  which  were  so  pre- 
pared as  to  light  fuses  when  they  burned  down  to  a  certain 
length,  and  set  going  some  clock-work  fitted  to  explode  a  per- 
cussion-cap in  a  given  time.  The  explosion  took  place  in  an 
hour  and  fifty-two  minutes  afterward,  and  although  it  was  felt 
seventy  miles  away  on  land,  and  broke  window-glasses  in  vessels 


494  SAVANNAH  TO  OOLDSBORO.  [1868. 

twelve  miles  distant  at  sea,  it  did  no  harm  to  the  fort.  It  is 
said  that  not  even  the  grass  near  it  was  injured,  and  that  it 
attracted  so  little  attention  in  the  fort  that  the  Confederates 
thought  it  was  only  the  bursting  of  a  gun. 

The  fleet,  which  was  one  of  the  largest  ever  afloat,  consist- 
ing of  nearly  sixty  vessels,  several  of  which  were  monitors, 
then  bombarded  the  fort.  The  firing  is  said  to  have  been  mag- 
nificent and  very  accurate.  The  guns  of  the  fort  were  soon 
silenced  and  two  magazines  were  blown  up.  On  the  25th 
Butler  landed  some  troops,  which  went  nearly  up  to  the  fort, 
but  Butler  recalled  them  and  ordered  the  expedition  to  ^e 
given  up.  His  conduct  caused  his  removal  from  command  by 
General  Grant.  Admiral  Porter,  who  remained  behind  with 
the  fleet,  wrote  to  Grant  that  Fort  Fisher  could  be  taken  by  a 
proper  commander.  In  conserpience  of  this  Grant  sent  back 
the  troops,  with  General  Alfred  H.  Terry  as  their  leader.  This 
expedition  reached  its  destination  on  the  12th  of  January.  In 
the  mean  time  President  Davis  had  sent  General  Bragg  to  take 
command  in  Wilmington.  This  officer,  it  will  be  remembered, 
was  very  unpopular  after  Chattanooga,  and  a  Virginia  news- 
paper showed  the  feeling  against  him  in  the  Confederacy  when 
it  announced:  "General  Bragg  has  been  appointed  to  com- 
mand at  Wilmington.     Good-by,  Wilmington!" 

The  troops  were  landed  (Jan.  13)  some  distance  above  the 
fort,  under  cover  of  the  guns  of  the  fleet,  which  kept  up  such 
a  heavy  fire  that  the  garrison  had  to  seek  safety  in  the  bomb- 
proofs.  Fort  Fisher  mounted  about  seventy-five  heavy  guns, 
while  the  fleet  carried  five  hundred,  some  of  which  were  the 
largest  in  the  world.  The  bombardment  was  kept  up  all  the 
next  day  and  until  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  15th, 
when  the  signal  was  given  for  the  assault  by  the  blowing  of  the 
steam-whistles  of  the  fleet.  General  Terry's  troops  had  worked 
their  way  up  by  digging  trenches  to  within  about  two  hundred 
yards  of  the  fort.  As  the  rapid  firing  from  the  ships  had  pre- 
vented the  Confederates  from  manning  their  sruns  or  even  using 
muskets,  the  Union  troops  advanced  to  within  sixty  yards 
before  they  were  fired  on.  The  bombardment  had  then  to 
stop,  for  fear  of  hitting  the  Union  soldiers,  and  the  Confeder- 
ates rushed  out  of  their  bomb-proofs,  where  they  had  lain  for 
two  days,  and  prepared  to  repel  the  assault.     There  was  a  pali- 


1865.]  WILMINGTON  TAKEN.  495 

sade  around  the  fort,  but  it  had  been  much  damaged  by  shot 
and  shell,  and  the  Union  axemen  soon  opened  a  passage  wide 
enough  for  the  troops  to  pass  through.  The  Confederates  gave 
way  at  the  gate,  and  the  troops  poured  in,  but  there  were 
several  traverses  or  cross-walls  in  the  fort,  and  the  garrison 
fought  from  one  to  another  of  these  with  the  greatest  bravery. 
For  five  or  six  hours  there  was  a  desperate  hand-to-hand  strug- 
gle. The  Confederates  made  a  most  heroic  defence,  but  the 
traverses  were  taken  one  after  the  other,  and  about  nine  o'clock 
the  fort  was  won.  The  garrison  retreated  to  some  other  works 
near  the  end  of  the  peninsula,  but  the  commandant,  General 
Whiting,  seeing  that  further  resistance  was  useless,  surrendered 
with  about  eighteen  hundred  men,  all  that  were  left  of  the 
twenty-five  hundred  defenders  of  the  fort.  The  Union  loss  in 
this  dreadful  struggle  was  nearly  seven  hundred.  Unfortu- 
nately there  was  a  further  loss  the  next  morning,  the  magazine 
of  the  fort  exploding  when  the  works  were  full  of  Union  sol- 
diers and  sailors,  whom  curiosity  had  drawn  thither,  and  killing 
and  wounding  three  hundred  more. 

Meanwhile  General  Bragg  at  Wilmington  had  ordered  Gen- 
eral Hoke  to  attack  Terry,  but  the  quick  movements  of  the 
latter  general  had  foiled  him.  The  fall  of  Fort  Fisher  was 
followed  by  the  blowing  up  by  the  Confederates  of  Fort  Cas- 
well and  some  other  works,  which  gave  the  Union  fleet  com- 
mand of  the  mouth  of  Cape  Fear  River  and  shut  out  all  block- 
ade-runners. In  the  early  part  of  February  General  Schofield, 
who  had  been  ordered  East  with  his  corps  after  the  defeat  of 
Hood  at  Nashville,  arrived  at  Fort  Fisher  and  took  command, 
under  the  orders  of  General  Sherman,  of  the  Department  of 
North  Carolina.  Schofield  at  once  advanced  on  both  sides  of 
Cape  Fear  River  toward  Wilmington,  which  is  about  thirty 
miles  from  its  mouth,  Porter's  fleet  at  the  same  time  moving 
up  the  river.  Fort  Anderson,  its  principal  defence,  was  occu- 
pied in  the  morning  of  February  19,  Hoke  and  his  men  having 
evacuated  it,  and  on  the  22d  Wilmington  was  entered  without 
resistance.  This  expedition  was  intended  to  aid  Sherman  in 
his  march  northward  from  Savannah,  for  Schofield  was  ordered 
by  Grant  to  advance  northward,  after  taking  Wilmington,  to 
Goldsboro,  on  the  Neuse  River,  repairing  the  railroad  behind 
him,  and  to  establish  there  a  depot  of  supplies  large  enough  for 


496  SAVANNAH  TO   GOLDSBORO.  [1865. 

an  army  of  sixty  thousand  men  and  twenty  thousand  horses. 
He  advanced  in  two  columns,  one  from  Wilmington;,  the  other 
from  New  Berne.  The  latter  was  defeated  hy  the  Confederates 
under  Hoke  at  Kinston,  with  the  loss  of  seven  hundred  prison- 
ers (March  8);  but  reinforcements  having  arrived,  the  Con- 
federates were  defeated  in  turn  three  days  later.  As  Sherman 
was  then  approaching,  Hoke  fell  back  toward  Smithfield,  and 
Schoficld  pushed  on  and  entered  Goldsboro  in  the  evening  of 
the  21st  of  March,  only  two  days  before  the  arrival  of  General 
Sherman.  General  Terry,  with  the  column  from  Wilmington, 
reached  there  the  next  day. 

Before  leaving  Savannah  General  Sherman  had  given  out 
that  he  was  going  to  Charleston  or  Augusta,  and  this  caused 
the  Confederates  to  keep  in  both  of  those  cities  a  force  for  their 
defence  which  would  otherwise  have  been  used  to  oppose  his 
march.  The  Seventeenth  Corps  of  the  Union  army  had  been 
sent  to  Pocotaligo,  a  place  nearly  midway  on  the  line  of  rail- 
way between  Savannah  and  Charleston,  and  this  also  led  to  the 
belief  that  the  latter  city  was  to  be  attacked.  But  General 
Sherman  had  made  up  his  mind  to  waste  no  time  on  either  of 
those  places,  for  he  knew  that  not  only  Augusta  and  Charles- 
ton but  the  whole  Confederacy  would  fall  after  his  march  was 
finished.  Leaving  General  Foster  in  command  of  Savannah, 
he  set  out,  on  the  1st  of  February,  with  sixty  thousand  men 
and  sixty-eight  guns.  The  army  was  nearly  the  same  as  that 
which  marched  from  Atlanta  to  the  sea,  and  had  the  same 
officers,  with  the  exception  that  the  Fifteenth  Corps  was  under 
Major-General  John  A.  Logan  instead  of  General  Osterhaus. 

To  oppose  this  great  force  the  Confederates  had  only  the 
garrison  of  Charleston  under  General  Hardee,  the  remains  of 
Hood's  army,  mostly  at  Augusta,  and  some  bodies  of  cavalry 
under  Generals  Wheeler  and  Wade  Hampton,  the  latter  of 
whom  had  been  sent  home  to  his  native  State  from  Virginia  to 
"  stay  the  progress  of  the  invader."  For  several  weeks  General 
Wheeler  had  employed  a  large  force  of  negroes  in  cutting  down 
trees  to  blockade  the  roads  and  in  burning  bridges  in  Sher- 
man's expected  pathway;  but  the  Union  soldiers  had  had  so 
much  experience  in  this  kind  of  work  that  the  barricades  were 
cut  away  and  the  bridges  rebuilt  so  quickly  as  scarcely  to  inter- 
fere with  the  marching  of  the  army.     Still  more  troublesome 


1865.] 


SALKEHATCHIE  RIVER. 


497 


were  the  heavy  rains  which  fell  during  the  early  part  of  the 
march,  flooding  the  streams  and  rice-fields,  and  turning  the 
swamps  into  lakes  of  slime.  In  the  march  from  Atlanta  to  the 
sea  the  army  had  moved  generally  in  the  same  direction  with 
the  rivers,  which  flow  eastward  into  the  Atlantic;  but  in  mov- 
ing northward  from  Savannah  the  line  of  march  was  across  the 
rivers,  the  passage  of  which  was  often  difficult  on  account  of 
the  floods  which  generally  prevail  at  that  season.  The  Con- 
federates took  advantage  of  this,  and  gathered  their  forces  on 
the  banks  of  the  rivers  to  prevent,  if  possible,  the  Union  army 
from  crossing.  When  the  Salkehatchie  Eiver  was  reached  it 
was  found  so  swollen  that  it  had  overflowed  its  banks  and  made 
the  low  lands  near  it  into  swamps,  across  which  the  roads  ran 
on  narrow  causeways;  but  the 
bridges  had  been  destroyed  by 
the  enemy  and  the  fords  were 
strongly  guarded.  The  weather 
was  bitterly  cold,  the  rain  fell  in 
torrents,  and  the  wind  blew  in 
heavy  gusts.  But  the  men  who 
had  fought  their  way  from  Chat- 
tanooga were  not  to  be  stopped 
by  such  trifles  as  these.  The 
men  of  the  Seventeenth  Corps 
dashed  into  the  swamp,  which 
was  three  miles  wide,  and  wading 
through  the  icy-cold  water,  sometimes  knee-deep  and  some- 
times up  to  their  necks,  forced  the  passage  of  the  river  near 
River's  Bridge,  and  attacking  the  Confederates  on  the  opjiosite 
side  drove  them  from  all  their  positions.  The  loss  was  small 
compared  with  the  advantage  gained,  for  the  enemy  fell  back 
from  the  whole  line  of  the  river,  so  that  the  rest  of  the  army 
crossed  without  trouble.  It  was  during  this  skirmish  that 
General  Wager  Swayne  lost  his  leg,  which  was  so  injured  by 
a  piece  of  shell  that  it  had  to  be  amputated. 

The  Confederates  fell  back  to  Branchville,  on  the  Edisto 
"River,  and  Sherman  set  his  men  at  work  to  destroy  the  railroad 
leading  from  Charleston  to  Augusta.  The  Confederates  say  that 
the  Union  troops  burned  everything  in  their  line  of  march, 
whicn  covered  a  tract  of  country  nearly  fifty  miles  wide.     They 


Wade  Hampton. 


498  SAVANNAH  TO  G0LDSB01W.  [1865. 

say  that  not  only  public  buildings  and  Confederate  and  State 
property  were  given  to  the  flames,  but  that  the  pine  forests 
were  fired  and  the  private  houses  of  citizens  plundered  and 
burned.  Barns  and  granaries  were  emptied,  and  when  the 
grain  was  not  carried  off  it  was  strewn  to  waste  under  the  feet 
of  the  cavalry.  "  The  roads  were  covered  with  butchered 
cattle,  hogs,  mules,  and  the  costliest  furniture.  Valuable 
cabinets,  rich  pianos,  were  not  only  hewn  to  pieces,  but  bottles 
of  ink,  turpentine,  oil,  whatever  could  efface  or  destroy,  was 
employed  to  defile  and  ruin.  Horses  were  ridden  into  the 
houses.  Beautiful  homesteads  of  the  parish  gentry,  with  their 
wonderful  tropical  gardens,  were  ruined.  .  .  .  Choice  pic- 
tures and  works  of  art  from  Europe,  select  and  numerous 
libraries,  objects  of  peace  wholly,  were  all  destroyed." 

This  very  sad  picture  of  the  horrors  of  war,  though  per- 
haps exaggerated,  has  doubtless  much  truth  in  it.  General 
Sherman's  orders  were  to  spare  private  dwellings  and  to 
destroy  only  public  property  which  could  be  turned  to  hostile 
uses.  These  orders  were  obeyed  strictly  in  the  march  through 
Georgia,  but  it  was  different  in  South  Carolina.  "  Somehow," 
says  Sherman,  "our  men  had  got  the  idea  that  South  Carolina 
was  the  cause  of  all  our  troubles;  her  people  were  the  first  to 
fire  on  Fort  Sumter,  had  been  in  a  great  hurry  to  precipitate  the 
country  into  civil  war,  and  therefore  on  them  should  fall  the 
scourge  of  war  in  its  worst  form.  Taunting  messages  had  also 
come  to  us,  when  in  Georgia,  to  the  effect  that  when  we  should 
reach  South  Carolina  we  would  find  a  people  less  passive,  who 
would  fight  us  to  the  bitter  end,  daring  us  to  come  over,  etc. ; 
so  that  I  saw  and  felt  that  we  would  not  be  able  longer  to 
restrain  our  men  as  we  had  done  in  Georgia." 

The  Confederate  cavalry,  in  falling  back  before  Sherman, 
had  burned  all  the  cotton  in  their  way,  as  if  they  thought  it  to 
be  the  main  object  of  the  expedition.  General  Wheeler  wrote 
a  letter  to  General  Howard  (Feb.  7)  offering  to  stop  burning 
cotton  if  the  Union  troops  would  cease  burning  private  houses. 
To  this  letter  General  Sherman  replied  as  follows:  "I  hope 
you  will  burn  all  the  cotton  and  save  us  the  trouble.  We  don't 
want  it.  It  has  been  a  curse  to  our  country.  All  you  don't 
burn  I  will.  As  to  private  houses  occupied  by  peaceful  fami- 
lies, my  orders  are  not  to  molest  or  disturb  them,  and  I  think 


1865.]  BURNING   OF  COLUMBIA.  499 

my  orders  are  obeyed.  Vacant  houses,  being  of  no  use  to  any- 
body, I  care  little  about,  as  the  owners  have  thought  them  of 
little  use  to  themselves;  I  don't  wish  to  have  them  destroyed, 
but  do  not  take  much  care  to  preserve  them." 

After  crossing  the  Salkehatchie  Sherman  was  in  a  position 
to  march  toward  either  Charleston  or  Augusta.  The  Con- 
federates, who  did  not  know  his  plans,  kept  troops  at  both 
places;  but  Sherman,  paying  no  attention  to  either  of  these 
forces,  marched  for  Columbia,  the  capital  of  South  Carolina. 
That  place  was  reached  on  the  17th  of  February,  and  at  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning  of  that  day  the  mayor  rode  out  and 
surrendered  the  city  to  General  Sherman.  The  General  him- 
self, accompanied  by  his  staff  and  by  Generals  Howard  and 
Logan,  at  once  rode  in.  They  found  nearly  all  the  people, 
white  and  black,  in  the  streets.  There  was  a  high  wind  blow- 
ing at  the  time,  and  the  air  was  filled  with  flakes  of  cotton, 
"reminding  us,"  says  Sherman,  "of  a  Northern  snow-storm." 
Near  the  market-place  was  a  brigade  of  Union  soldiers  halted, 
with  arms  stacked,  helping  some  citizens  to  put  out  the  fire  in 
long  piles  of  blazing  cotton-bales.  By  orders  of  General  Hamp- 
ton, the  people  said,  all  bales  of  cotton  had  been  dragged  into 
the  streets,  cut  open,  and  fired.  Most  of  these  fires  were  put 
out,  but  during  the  next  night  the  smouldering  embers  were 
rekindled  by  the  wind,  and  the  sparks  and  burning  flakes  of 
cotton,  being  blown  about,  set  fire  to  some  of  the  houses,  most 
of  which  were  built  of  wood.  The  Union  troops  worked  hard, 
but  it  was  found  impossible  to  subdue  the  flames  until  about 
four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  the  wind  went  down  and  the 
fire  was  got  under  control.  But  it  had  burned  out  the  heart 
of  the  city,  including  several  churches  and  hotels,  the  old  State 
House,  and  many  dwellings.  The  Confederates  accused  Gen- 
eral Sherman  of  purposely  burning  the  city,  but  this  charge 
has  been  proved  to  be  untrue.  The  fire  was  undoubtedly  acci- 
dental, and  probably  caught  from  the  piles  of  cotton  which  the 
Confederate  cavalry  had  fired  in  the  streets  before  leaving  the 
city.  By  Sherman's  orders  everything  was  done  to  aid  the 
mayor  to  provide  shelter  for  those  who  had  been  made  home- 
less by  the  fire,  and  five  hundred  beef-cattle  were  given  to  him 
to  help  feed  them. 

The  State  arsenal,  several  foundries,  and  other  buildings, 


500  SAVANNAH  TO   GOLDSBORO.  [1865. 

and  all  other  public  property  in  Columbia  were  destroyed. 
Among  the  buildings  was  that  in  which  the  Confederate  paper 
money  had  been  printed.  The  dies  had  been  carried  away, 
but  many  presses  and  great  quantities  of  the  money  partly 
printed  were  found.  The  soldiers  supplied  themselves  with 
all  the  money  they  wanted,  and  had  great  sport  in  gambling 
with  it. 

On  the  day  after  Sherman  entered  Columbia,  General 
Hardee,  who  had  about  fourteen  thousand  men  in  Charleston, 
evacuated  that  city  and  went  northward  by  the  only  railroad 
left  to  him — that  leading  through  Florence  to  Cheraw.  He 
knew  that  if  he  remained  any  longer  in  Charleston  he  would 
meet  the  fate  of  Pemberton  in  Vicksburg.  By  his  quick  move- 
ment he  succeeded  in  joining  the  main  Confederate  army,  then 
under  Beauregard,  on  the  border  of  North  Carolina,  before 
Sherman  could  cut  him  off,  but  he  lost  several  thousand  men 
by  desertion  on  the  way.  Before  leaving  Charleston,  Hardee 
set  fire  to  all  the  warehouses  and  sheds  having  cotton  in  them. 
The  few  citizens  who  were  left  tried  hard  to  put  out  the  fires, 
but  the  flames  spread  rapidly  and  soon  caught  other  buildings. 
Some  boys  found  some  gunpowder  stored  in  the  Northwestern 
Railway  station,  and  amused  themselves  by  carrying  handfuls 
of  it  and  throwing  it  on  the  piles  of  cotton  burning  in  the 
streets.  They  spilled  it  along  the  ground,  until  a  train  was 
formed  along  which  the  fire  ran  and  caught  the  powder 
stored  in  the  station.  A  great  explosion  took  place,  which 
shook  the  whole  city  and  killed  more  than  two  hundred  per- 
sons. This  spread  the  fire  to  still  other  buildings,  and  soon 
several  squares  were  in  a  blaze.  A  large  amount  of  private 
property,  in  addition  to  the  public  property,  was  thus  destroyed. 

In  the  morning  of  the  18th  the  Union  officer  in  command  on 
Morris  Island  (see  map,  page  57),  having  heard  that  the  Con- 
federates were  leaving  the  city,  sent  a  boat  to  reconnoitre. 
Finding  the  rumor  to  be  true,  he  sent  a  party  to  Fort  Sumter 
and  the  flag  of  the  Union  was  hoisted  once  more  over  it  at  nine 
o'clock.  Flags  were  also  hoisted  over  the  other  forts,  and  about 
ten  o'clock  the  city  was  entered.  The  mayor  surrendered  it, 
and  troops  were  at  once  sent  to  take  possession  and  help  put 
out  the  fires.  The  negroes  were  set  at  work,  and  the  United 
States  arsenal  and  other  buildings  were  saved.     A  newspaper 


1865.] 


CHARLESTON. 


501 


correspondent,  who  entered  the  city  with  the  soldiers,  thus 
describes  the  desolation: 

"Not  a  building  for  blocks  here  that  is  exempt  from  the 
marks  of  shot  and  shell.  All  have  suffered  more  or  less.  Here 
is  a  fine  brown-stone  bank  building  vacant  and  deserted,  with 
great  gaping  holes  in  the  sides  and  roof,  through  which  the 
sun  shines  and  the  rain  pours;  windows  and  sashes  blown  out 
by  exploding  shell  within;  plastering  knocked  down;  counters 
torn  up;  floors  crushed  in,  and  fragments  of  mosaic  pavement, 
broken  and  crushed,  lying  around  on  the  floor,  mingled  with 
bits  of  statuary,  stained 
glass,  and  broken  parts 
of  chandeliers.  Kuin 
within  and  ruin  with- 
out; and  its  neighbor  in 
no  better  plight.  The 
churches,  St.  Michael's 
and  St.  Philip's,  haye 
not  escaped  the  storms 
of  our  projectiles.  Their 
roofs  are  perforated,  their 
walls  wounded,  their  pil- 
lars demolished,  and 
within  the  pews  filled 
with  plastering.  From 
Bay  Street,  studded  with 
batteries,  to  Calhoun  Street,  our  shells  have  carried  destruction 
and  desolation,  and  often  death,  with  them." 

Although  the  Confederates  did  all  they  could  to  injure  the 
cannon  left  in  the  city,  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  serviceable 
pieces,  mostly  large  Columbiads,  fell  into  the  hands  of  General 
Gillmore,  who  was  then  commanding  the  department.  One 
very  large  English  breech-loading  Blakely  gun,  a  600-pounder, 
was  burst  purposely.  Its  breech  measured  more  than  four  feet 
across,  and  the  grains  of  powder  used  in  it  were  nearly  an  inch 
square.  The  three  grains  in  the  picture  are  the  exact  size  and 
shape  of  some  belonging  to  it. 

Colonel  Stewart  L.  Woodford,  of  the  One  Hundred  and 
Twenty-seventh  New  York,  was  made  military  governor  of 
Charleston,  and  under  his  orders  the   schools  and   churches 


Quincy  A.  Gillmore. 


502 


SAVANNAH  TO   OOLDSBORO. 


[1865. 


were  opened,  business  was  resumed,  and  the  city,  which  for 
four  long  years  had  felt  the  horrors  of  war,  became  once  more 
the  abode  of  peace.  President  Lincoln  decided  that  the  public 
ceremony  of  raising  the  flag  over  Sumter  should  take  place  on 
the  following  14th  of  April,  the  anniversary  of  its  fall.  Ac- 
cordingly General  Anderson  and  many  prominent  men  assem- 
bled there  on  that  day,  with  the  same  flag  which  had  been 
hauled  down  four  years  before.  Chaplain  Matthew  Harris, 
who  had  made  the  prayer  at  the  raising  of  the  flag  in  Decem- 
ber, 1860,  when  Anderson  first  took  possession  of  Sumter,  again 
asked  a  blessing  on  it,  suitable  songs  were  sung  and  speeches 
made,  and  amid  salutes  by  all  the  forts  in  the  harbor,  the 
music  of  the  "Star-Spangled  Banner,"  and  loud  huzzas,  the  old 
flag  was  raised  to  its  place  by  the  hands  of  General  Anderson. 


Cannon-Powder  Grains. 

From  Columbia  General  Sherman  marched  toward  Char- 
lotte, to  make  the  enemy  think  he  was  going  there,  but  he 
soon  turned  eastward  toward  Cheraw.  He  had  heard  from  the 
negroes  that  Charleston  had  been  evacuated,  and  that  Terry 
and  Schofield  had  taken  Wilmington,  but  he  had  had  no 
official  news.  The  heavy  rains  had  continued,  and  the  roads 
were  so  nearly  impassable  that  they  had  to  be  "  corduroyed" 
most  of  the  way — that  is,  covered  with  the  split  trunks  of  trees 
laid  crosswise,  so  as  to  make  a  firm  bed  for  the  artillery  and 
wagons.  One  day  General  Sherman  came  to  a  fork  in  the 
road.  According  to  his  map  the  right  road  led  to  Cheraw, 
but  to  make  sure  he  called  to  a  negro  standing  by  to  see  the 
troops  pass,  and  asked  him  Avhere  the  road  led  to. 

"Him  lead  to  Cheraw,  massa." 

"Is  it  a  good  road,  and  how  far?" 


1865.]  HAMPTON  AND  KILPATRICK.  503 

"Berry  good  road,  and  eight  or  ten  miles." 

"Any  guerrillas?" 

"  Oh  no,  massa,  dey  all  gone  two  days  ago.  You  could  ha? 
played  cards  on  dere  coat-tails,  dey  was  in  sich  a  hurry." 

General  Sherman,  who  was  riding  a  very  handsome  and  gay 
horse,  motioned  to  his  staff  to  follow,  and  turned  down  the 
road.  Just  then  General  Barry  came  along,  and  after  ques- 
tioning the  negro  further  about  the  road,  asked  him  what  he 
was  doing  there. 

"  Dey  say  Massa  Sherman  will  be  along  soon,"  he  answered. 

"Why,"  said  General  Barry,  "that  was  General  Sherman 
you  were  talking  to." 

"De  great  God!"  exclaimed  the  negro,  "jus'  look  at  his 
hoss!"  And  with  a  bound  he  ran  after  General  Sherman  and 
trotted  along  by  his  side  for  a  mile  or  two.  "  But,"  says 
General  Sherman,  "he  seemed  to  admire  the  horse  more  than 
the  rider." 

Cheraw  was  reached  on  the  3d  of  March  in  a  drizzling  rain. 
A  large  amount  of  stores  and  other  things  were  found  there, 
which  had  been  sent  from  Charleston  for  safety;  among  them 
were  twenty-five  pieces  of  artillery,  thirty-six  hundred  barrels 
of  gunpowder,  many  muskets,  and  wagon-loads  of  fine  wines 
and  liquors,  carpets,  and  household  goods.  In  Cheraw  General 
Sherman  heard  that  Beauregard  had  been  superseded  by  his 
old  foe,  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  and  that  he  was  collect- 
ing in  his  front  all  the  remains  of  the  different  Confederate 
armies  to  oppose  his  further  march  toward  Richmond.  The 
Great  Pedee  River  was  crossed,  and  by  the  6th  of  March  the 
whole  army  was  on  the  way  to  Fayetteville,  which  was  reached 
five  days  later.  The  roads  through  the  swamps  and  pine  woods 
were  very  bad,  and  had  to  be  corduroyed  most  of  the  way  with 
fence-rails  and  split  saplings.  Skirmishing  with  parties  of  the 
enemy  was  almost  of  daily  occurrence.  Hardee's  troops,  which 
had  retreated  from  Cheraw  to  Fayetteville,  had  crossed  Cape 
Fear  River  and  burned  the  bridge  behind  them.  They  had 
been  followed  closely  by  Kilpatrick's  cavalry,  who  had  several 
fights  with  both  Wheeler  and  Hampton.  Early  one  morning 
Hampton's  cavalry  surprised  Kilpatrick's  men  in  their  camp, 
routed  them,  and  captured  their  guns  and  most  of  Kilpatrick's 
staff  officers.     Kilpatrick  himself  barely  escaped  on  foot.     He 


504  SAVANNAH  TO  GOLDSBORO.  [1805. 

succeeded  in  rallying  liis  men  in  a  swamp,  and  attacked  the 
enemy,  who,  supposing  him  utterly  defeated,  were  engaged  in 
plundering  his  camp.  The  Confederates  were  routed  in  turn, 
and  Kilpatrick  retook  his  guns;  but  Hampton  got  off  with 
about  two  hundred  prisoners. 

Sherman  halted  three  days  at  Fayetteville  to  rest  his  men, 
who  were  wearied  with  the  incessant  labor  of  marching,  road- 
making,  and  bridge-building.  While  there  he  received  dis- 
patches from  General  Terry  in  Wilmington,  the  first  official 
news  he  had  had  from  the  other  armies  since  he  began  his 
march.  Before  leaving  Fayetteville,  the  fine  United  States 
arsenal,  to  which  had  been  brought  much  of  the  machinery 
from  the  armory  at  Harper's  Ferry  when  it  was  captured  in 
1861,  was  completely  destroyed,  together  with  other  public 
property.  On  the  15th  of  March  the  whole  army  was  across 
Cape  Fear  River  and  on  the  way  to  Goldsboro.  Skirmishing 
continued  with  Hardee's  troops,  and  on  the  next  day  they 
were  found  in  a  strong  position  near  Averysboro.  A  brisk  en- 
gagement took  place,  with  a  loss  of  about  five  hundred  on  each 
side,  ending  in  the  retreat  of  the  Confederates  toward  Smith- 
field.  Another  battle  took  place  on  the  19th  and  20th  with 
General  Johnston's  army,  near  Bentonsville.  Johnston,  who 
had  succeeded  in  getting  together  the  remnants  of  Hardee's, 
Bragg's,  and  Hood's  forces,  made  a  stand  there  and  attacked 
General  Slocum's  column.  Slocum,  uncertain  of  the  enemy's 
strength,  stood  on  the  defensive  until  the  others  came  up. 
There  was  some  hard  fighting  on  the  first  day,  in  which  the 
Confederates  were  repulsed,  and.  they  finally  retreated  to 
Smithfield.  The  Union  loss  at  Bentonsville  was  about  sixteen 
hundred,  that  of  the  enemy  more  than  twenty-three  hundred. 

The  route  being  then  open  to  Goldsboro,  Sherman  pushed 
on  to  that  place  and  formed  a  junction  (March  23)  with 
Generals  Schofield  and  Terry,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  had 
arrived  there  from  Wilmington  only  two  clays  before.  The 
army  was  in  splendid  condition,  and  the  trains  were  almost  as 
fresh  as  when  they  left  Atlanta;  yet  during  the  previous  fifty 
days  they  had  marched  four  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles 
from  Savannah  to  Goldsboro,  across  a  country  almost  in  a  state 
of  nature,  through  swamps  and  thickets,  over  mud  roads 
which  had  to  be  mended  at  almost  every  mile,  and  across  deep 


1865.]  LINCOLN  AND  SHEHMAN.  505 

rivers  which  had  to  be  bridged.  Nearly  all  the  railroads  of 
South  Carolina  had  been  destroyed,  and  a  strip  of  country 
through  the  State,  at  least  fifty  miles  wide,  had  been  devastated 
and  stripped  of  all  its  food.  In  North  Carolina,  where  the 
Union  feeling  had  been  very  strong  in  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  the  soldiers  had  been  much  less  destructive  than  in  South 
Carolina,  and  but  little  private  property  had  been  injured. 

With  the  armies  of  Schofield  and  Terry  added  to  his  own, 
General  Sherman  had  nearly  ninety  thousand  men.  He  had 
plenty  of  supplies,  for  the  Neuse  River  was  open  from  Golds- 
boro  to  the  sea,  and  two  lines  of  railway — one  to  Wilmington 
and  one  to  New  Berne  and  Beaufort — had  been  put  in  good 
working  order.  His  success  thus  far  was  complete,  for  he  had 
cut  off  Lee's  resources,  and  had  got  behind  him  with  an  army 
large  enough  to  keep  him  from  moving  southward  from  Vir- 
ginia. This  was  the  great  object  of  the  campaign,  for  if  the 
Confederates  had  been  allowed  to  retreat  southward,  they  might 
have  united  their  forces  from  the  east  and  from  the  west 
and  still  have  given  much  trouble.  General  Lee  knew  the 
danger  of  Sherman's  advance,  but  he  could  do  nothing  to  pre- 
vent it.  There  was  some  talk  of  giving  up  Richmond  and 
marching  against  Sherman,  in  hope  of  defeating  him  before 
Grant  could  give  him  aid.  It  was  believed  by  many  that  if 
Sherman  could  be  overwhelmed  Richmond  could  be  regained. 
General  Lee  was-  in  favor  of  this  plan,  but  the  Confederate 
authorities  decided  that  the  capital  must  be  held  at  all  hazards. 

Although  Sherman  had  received  despatches  from  Grant 
giving  a  full  account  of  operations,  he  felt  that  he  ought  to 
have  a  consultation  with  the  general-in-chief  before  making  any 
further  movement.  So,  leaving  his  army  in  command  of 
Schofield,  he  went  by  railroad  to  Beaufort  and  thence  by 
steamer  (March  27)  to  City  Point,  General  Grant's  headquar- 
ters before  Petersburg.  He  found-  General  Grant  and  his 
family  living  in  a  pretty  group  of  huts  on  the  banks  of  the 
James  River,  which,  filled  with  war  and  merchant  vessels  of  all 
kinds,  presented  a  busy  scene.  After  a  long  talk,  the  two 
commanders  went  to  call  on  President  Lincoln,  who  was  then 
on  board  the  steamer  River  Queen  at  the  wharf.  General 
Sherman  says  the  President  "  was  full  of  curiosity  about  the 
many  incidents  of  our  great  march,  which  had  reached  him 


506  SAVANNAS  TO  GOLDSBORO.  [1865. 

officially  and  through  the  newspapers,  and  seemed  to  enjoy 
very  much  the  more  ludicrous  parts — about  the  "  bummers," 
and  their  devices  to  collect  food  and  forage  when  the  outside 
world  supposed  us  to  be  starving;  but  at  the  same  time  he 
expressed  a  good  deal  of  anxiety  lest  some  accident  might 
happen  to  the  army  in  North  Carolina  during  my  absence.  I 
explained  to  him  that  that  army  was  snug  and  comfortable,  in 
good  camps,  at  Goldsboro;  that  it  would  require  some  days  to 
collect  forage  and  food  for  another  march;  and  that  General 
Schofield  was  fully  competent  to  command  it  in  my  absence." 

Both  General  Grant  and  General  Sherman  believed  that  the 
end  of  the  war  was  at  hand,  but  they  thought  that  one  more 
great  battle  would  have  to  be  fought.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  very 
anxjous  to  avoid  another  battle,  if  possible.  He  said  that 
enough  blood  had  been  shed,  and  he  was  in  favor  of  giving 
Lee  and  Johnston  the  best  of  terms  if  they  would  agree  to  dis- 
band their  armies  and  let  their  men  go  back  to  their  homes. 
With  their  surrender  he  believed  that  all  the  other  Confeder- 
ates in  the  South  and  West  would  lay  down  their  arms  and  the 
country  would  be  once  more  at  peace.  "When  I  left  him," 
says  General  Sherman,  "I  was  more  than  ever  impressed  by  his 
kindly  nature,  his  deep  and  earnest  sympathy  with  the  afflic- 
tions of  the  whole  people,  resulting  from  the  war,  and  by  the 
march  of  hostile  armies  through  the  South;  and  that  his  earnest 
desire  seemed  to  be  to  end  the  war  speedily,  without  more 
bloodshed  or  devastation,  and  to  restore  all  the  men  of  both 
sections  to  their  homes.  ...  Of  all  the  men  I  ever  met, 
he  seemed  to  possess  more  of  the  elements  of  greatness,  com- 
bined with  goodness,  than  any  other." 

General  Sherman  returned  to  Goldsboro  (March  30)  and  at 
once  set  about  making  preparations  to  march  again  on  the  10th 
of  April,  the  day  agreed  on  with  General  Grant.  But  before 
that  time  great  events  occurred  which  changed  all  his  plans. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

MOBILE. 

Stoneman's  Raid.— Salisbury.— Mobile.— Wilson's  Raid.— Fight  with  Forrest.— Taking 
of  Selma.— Cotton  Burning.— Surrender  of  Montgomery.— Capture  of  Columbus.— 
Iron-clad  Rams.—  Macon.— Joyful  News.—  Defences  of  Mobile.—  Canby's  Plan.— 
Spanish  Fort.— Storming  of  Blakely.— Surrender  of  Mobile. 

BEFORE  following  further  the  armies  of  Grant  and  Sher- 
man, let  us  see  what  has  been  doing  meanwhile  in  the 
South  and  West.  It  will  be  remembered  that  after  the  defeat 
of  General  Hood's  army  at  Nashville,  General  Schofield  had 
been  withdrawn,  with  the  Twenty-third  Corps,  from  Thomas's 
Army  of  the  Cumberland  and  sent  East  to  Sherman.  Shortly 
afterward  General  Thomas  was  ordered  to  send  the  command 
of  General  A.  J.  Smith  and  some  cavalry  to  General  Canby, 
then  in  New  Orleans,  to  aid  in  an  attack  on  Mobile;  and 
also  a  larger  cavalry  force,  under  General  Stoneman,  to  make 
a  raid  into  South  Carolina  toward  Columbia,  to  destroy  rail- 
roads and  other  public  property,  and  thus  aid  General 
Sherman,  who  was  then  marching  in  that  direction.  But 
Stoneman  was  so  long  in  getting  ready  that  he  was  too  late  to 
help  Sherman,  who  had  moved  rapidly;  so  he  was  ordered  to 
march  eastward  and  destroy  the  Virginia  and  Tennessee  Rail- 
road as  far  toward  Lynchburg  as  possible.  This  was  intended 
to  cut  off  General  Lee's  retreat  southward,  in  case  he  should 
withdraw  from  Petersburg  and  Richmond.  Stoneman,  who 
had  made  a  raid  in  the  same  direction  near  the  close  of  the 
previous  year  (1864),  left  Knoxville  on  the  20th  of  March,  and 
going  into  Virginia  destroyed  the  railroad  nearly  to  Lynchburg. 
He  then  moved  into  North  Carolina,  defeated  three  thousand 
Confederates  near  Salisbury,  capturing  nearly  half  of  them, 
with  fourteen  guns,  and  dispersing  the  rest,  and  took  Salis- 
bury. This  had  been  a  prison-camp,  but  all  the  prisoners  had 
been  removed.  Vast  quantities  of  provisions,  clothing,  medi- 
cines, and  ammunition,  several  thousand  bales  of  cotton,  and 
many  small-arms  were  burned,  and  the  railways  torn  up  in 
every  direction.     Stoneman  returned  to  East  Tennessee  in 


508 


MOBILE. 


[1865. 


April,  having  destroyed  in  his  raid  an  immense  amount  of 
property  and  captured  about  six  thousand  prisoners. 

After  the  fall  of  Savannah,  Charleston,  and  Wilmington, 
Mobile  was  the  only  important  seaboard  city  left  to  the  Confed- 
erates. Admiral  Farragut's  capture  of  the  forts  at  the  entrance 
of  Mobile  Bay  (page  407)  bad  closed  tbe  port  against  blockade- 
runners  and  commerce,  but  had  not  caused  the  fall  of  the  city, 
which  lies  at  the  mouth  of  Mobile  River,  thirty  miles  above  the 
forts.  It  was  strongly  fortified  and  had  a  garrison  of  about 
fifteen  thousand  men  in  command  of  General  D.  H.  Maury, 
who  was  under  the  orders  of  General  Dick  Taylor,  then  in  com- 
mand of  the  Confederate  Department  of  Alabama,  Mississippi, 

and  East  Louisiana,  with 
headquarters  at  Meridian 
in  Mississippi. 

General  Canby's  army 
for  the  capture  of  Mobile 
consisted  of  about  forty- 
five  thousand  men,  five 
thousand  of  whom  were 
cavalry  under  General 
Grierson.  The  land  forces 
were  to  be  aided  by  the 
West  Gulf  Squadron,  then 
under  command  of  Rear- 
Admiral  Thatcher.  To 
give  still  further  aid  in 
the  movement  against 
Mobile,  General  Grant  had  ordered  General  Thomas  to  send  a 
strong  cavalry  expedition  into  Alabama,  to  destroy  the  resources 
of  the  country  and  prevent  supplies  and  men  from  being  sent 
to  Mobile.  General  James  H.  Wilson,  who  had  been  selected 
to  command  this  expedition,  set  out  from  Chickasaw  Landing, 
on  the  Tennessee  River,  on  the  22d  of  March,  with  about  thir- 
teen thousand  men.  All  his  men  were  mounted,  excepting 
fifteen  hundred,  who  acted  as  a  guard  to  the  baggage-train  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  wagons.  Besides  these  there  were  fifty- 
six  mule- wagons,  laden  with  a  pontoon  train  for  crossing  rivers. 
Each  trooper  carried  five  days'  rations  for  himself,  twenty-four 
pounds  of  grain  for  his  horse,  a  pair  of  extra  horseshoes,  and 


George  Stoneman. 


1865.]  WILSON'S  RAID.  509 

one  hundred  rounds  of  ammunition.  Nearly  all  were  armed 
with  the  Spencer  carbine,  a  rifle  which  will  fire  seven  shots 
without  reloading. 

Wilson  moved  in  a  general  southerly  direction  towards 
Selma,  an  important  town  on  the  Alabama  River.  At  Elyton 
he  sent  a  brigade  of  his  force,  under  General  Croxton,  to  Tus- 
caloosa, with  orders  to  destroy  the  public  stores,  foundries, 
factories,  and  bridges  there,  and  to  rejoin  him  at  Selma.  There 
were  many  skirmishes  with  Confederate  cavalry  on  the  route, 
but  the  enemy  was  generally  routed,  and  Wilson  went  on, 
destroying  iron-works,  rolling-mills,  collieries,  and  all  other 
property  which  could  be  turned  to  hostile  uses.  When  near 
Plantersville  he  had  a  fight  with  General  Forrest,  who,  with 
about  five  thousand  men,  held  a  strong  position.  After  a  brief 
battle  Forrest  was  routed,  with  the  loss  of  three  guns  and 
several  hundred  prisoners,  and  pursued  twenty-four  miles.  In 
the  morning  of  the  2d  of  April  Wilson  came  in  sight  of  Selma, 
which  was  strongly  fortified  and  held  by  about  seven  thousand 
men.  General  Dick  Taylor,  who  was  there,  ordered  Forrest  to 
defend  the  place,  and  then  left  on  the  cars.  After  a  sharp 
fight  the  works  were  taken  at  dusk  by  assault,  and  Selma  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Unionists,  with  thirty-two  cannons  and 
nearly  three  thousand  prisoners.  Forrest,  with  the  rest  of 
his  men,  fled  eastward,  after  setting  on  fire  twenty-five  thou- 
sand bales  of  cotton.  General  Wilson  found  and  burned 
ten  thousand  more,  as  well  as  all  the  foundries,  arsenals, 
machine-shops,  and  other  Confederate  property  in  and  around 
the  city. 

On  the  10th  of  April  General  Wilson  crossed  the  Alabama 
River  by  a  bridge  he  had  built,  and  marched  on  Montgomery, 
the  capital  of  Alabama  and  the  first  capital  of  the  Confed- 
eracy. The  Confederates  did  not  await  his  coming,  but  left 
after  setting  fire  to  nearly  ninety  thousand  bales  of  cotton,  and 
the  city  was  surrendered  by  the  authorities  without  a  blow 
(April  12).  The  flag  of  the  Union  was  unfurled  over  the  State 
House  (see  page  46)  where,  four  years  before,  the  first  Confed- 
erate flag  had  been  hoisted  after  its  adoption  by  the  Confed- 
erate Congress.  From  Montgomery  Wilson  crossed  the  Chatta- 
hoochee River  into  Georgia,  and  captured  Columbus  after  a 
sharp  fight  with  the  Confederates.     A  vast  amount  of  property 


510  MOBILE.  [1865. 

was  destroyed  there,  including  one  hundred  and  fifteen  thou- 
sand bales  of  cotton,  many  locomotives  and  cars,  and  arsenals, 
mills,  foundries,  and  machine-shops.  A  new  iron-clad  ram, 
named  the  Jackson,  was  burned,  and  the  Confederates  burned 
another  one,  called  the  Chattahoochee,  that  was  building  a  few 
miles  down  the  river.  On  the  20th  of  April  Wilson  arrived  at 
Macon,  Georgia,  which  was  surrendered  to  him  without  resist- 
ance. There  he  received  the  glad  news  of  the  surrender  of  the 
army  of  General  Lee,  and  of  the  probable  end  of  the  war, 
and  ceased  further  hostile  acts.  He  was  joined  at  Macon 
(April  31)  by  General  Croxton,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  had 
been  sent  to  Tuscaloosa  to  destroy  the  Confederate  property  at 
that  place,  with  orders  to  rejoin  the  main  body  at  Selma. 
Croxton  had  marched  more  than  six  hundred  miles  in  thirty 
days  without  hearing  of  Wilson,  and  had  destroyed  much 
property  with  little  loss  to  himself. 

Wilson  lost  about  seven  hundred  men  in  his  great  raid, 
during  which  he  captured  nearly  seven  thousand  prisoners 
and  two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  pieces  of  artillery.  Besides 
the  immense  damage  which  he  inflicted  on  the  Confederates 
in  the  destruction  of  supplies  and  war  material,  he  also 
did  them  much  injury  by  obliging  them  to  keep  many  men 
in  the  country  through  which  he  passed,  who  would  other- 
wise have  gone  to  aid  in  the  defence  of  Mobile  against  General 
Canby. 

According  to  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  Mobile  was  the 
best  fortified  city  in  the  Confederacy.  It  was  surrounded  by 
three  lines  of  earthworks,  defended  by  fifty-eight  forts,  and 
having  ditches  thirty  feet  wide  and  twenty  feet  deep,  through 
which  the  tide-water  flowed.  Besides  these  land  defences  there 
were  also  strong  water-batteries  on  the  shores  of  the  bay  and 
several  floating  batteries,  and  the  channels  of  the  harbor  were 
obstructed  with  rows  of  piles  and  torpedoes.  The  strongest 
of  the  fortifications,  Spanish  Fort,  was  on  a  bluff  on  the 
east  side  of  the  bay.  It  was  so  called  because  it  occupied  the 
site  of  a  fort  built  by  the  Spaniards  when  they  held  Mobile; 
but  the  Confederate  fort  was  very  much  larger  than  the 
old  one,  extending  along  the  bluff  nearly  two  miles.  It  was 
held  by  General  Bandal  L.  Gibson  with  about  twenty-five 
hundred  men. 


1865.]  SPANISH  FORT  AND  BLAEELY.  511 

As  the  city  was  too  strong  to  be  attacked  successfully  on  the 
west  side,  General  Canby  determined  to  move  first  against 
Spanish  Fort.  Some  of  the  troops  under  General  Gordon 
Granger  marched  from  Fort  Morgan,  and  others  under  General 
A.  J.  Smith  were  landed  on  the  east  side  of  the  bay.  These 
two  forces  joined  and  moved  northward  against  Spanish  Fort, 
while  General  Steele,  with  a  division  of  negro  troops,  marched 
from  Pensacola  westward  against  Fort  Blakely,  ten  miles  north 
of  Mobile.  The  siege  of  Spanish  Fort  began  on  the  28th  of 
March  and  lasted  two  weeks,  during  which  a  heavy  bombard- 
ment was  kept  up  by  both  sides  day  and  night.  The  Union 
gunboats  aided  the  besiegers  by  day,  but  withdrew  out  of  range 
by  night.  Two  of  them,  the  Metacomet  and  the  Osage,  were 
blown  up  by  torpedoes.  The  Confederates  fought  with  the 
greatest  bravery,  and  made  several  sallies  from  their  works, 
taking  some  prisoners,  but  were  always  driven  back.  At  last 
(April  8),  after  a  heavy  cannonade,  part  of  the  works  were 
taken  by  assault,  and  that  night  the  Confederates  evacuated  it. 
Its  guns  were  turned  upon  some  of  the  other  forts,  which  had 
also  to  be  left,  and  the  fleet,  after  fishing  up  many  torpedoes, 
moved  up  near  enough  to  throw  shells  into  the  city. 

The  army  then  moved  against  Fort  Blakely,  which  had 
been  besieged  for  several  days  by  General  Steele.  It  was  a 
very*  strong  work,  with  a  line  of  forts  nearly  three  miles  long, 
with  a  deep  ditch  in  front,  and  was  held  by  about  three  thou- 
sand men,  under  General  St.  John  Lid  ell.  In  the  evening  of 
Sunday,  April  9th,  a  grand  assault  was  made  on  the  fort.  A 
storm  was  gathering  in  the  west,  and  the  heavens  resounded 
with  the  rolling  of  distant  thunder;  but  its  sounds  were  soon 
drowned  in  the  roar  of  artillery.  Under  cover  of  the  fire  the 
men  advanced  toward  the  works,  cutting  and  clearing  away  the 
abatis  and  other  obstructions,  while  their  ranks  were  thinned 
by  grape  and  canister  shot  from  the  guns  of  the  besieged. 
The  ground  in  front  of  the  works  was  planted  thickly  with 
torpedoes,  many  of  which  exploded  with  dreadful  effect.  But 
the  brave  men  pushed  gallantly  on,  across  ditches  and  over 
embankments,  and  by  seven  o'clock  Blakely  was  won.  Three 
generals  and  three  thousand  men  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
victors,  besides  forty  cannons,  many  small-arms,  and  a  large 
amount  of  ammunition.     Two  days  afterward  General  Maury 


612 


MOBILE. 


[1865. 


evacuated  Mobile,  and  sinking  the  rams  Huntsville  and  Tusca- 
loosa, went  with  the  rest  of  his  force,  about  nine  thousand  men, 
up  the  Alabama  Eiver.  On  the  12th  of  April  the  city  was 
surrendered,  and  on  the  next  day  the  Union  troops  entered  and 
the  flag  of  the  Union  was  hoisted  on  all  the  public  buildings  of 
the  last  Confederate  seaport. 


Pabrott  Gun. 


CHAPTEE   XLI. 

PETERSBURG. 

The  Confederacy  in  1865.— Conscription  and  Desertion.— Negro  Soldiers.— Confed- 
erate Money.— Lee's  Army.— Dissatisfaction  with  Davis.— Lee  Commander-in-Chief. 
—Mrs.  Davis.— Foreign  Aid  Expected.— Peace  Efforts.— War  Meetings  in  Rich- 
mond.—Desolation  in  Virginia.— Christmas  in  1864.— War  Prices.—  Dinner-Party.— 
Southside  Railroad.— Dinwiddie  Court-House.— Army  Telegraph.— Sheridan's  Raid. 
—Early  Defeated.— Charlottesville.— Lee's  Last  Attack.— Fort  Steedman.— Sheri- 
dan again  in  the  Saddle.— Five  Forks.— Grand  Assault  on  Petersburg.— Fort 
Alexander.— Fort  Gregg.— Death  of  A.  P.  Hill.— Lee's  Telegram.— Petersburg  at 
Last! 

THE  beginning  of  1865  found  the  Confederacy  almost  at 
its  last  gasp.  Most  of  its  strongholds  and  seaports  had 
fallen,  much  of  its  territory  had  been  devastated,  and  a  vast 
amount  of  its  property  destroyed;  and  although  its  armies  still 
kept  the  field,  it  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  recruits 
could  be  obtained  to  fill  the  ranks.  Every  able-bodied  man 
between  the  ages  of  seventeen  and  fifty-five  was  liable  under 
the  law  to  do  military  duty,  but  it  was  found  impossible  to 
force  all  men  into  the  army.  The  poor  could  not  escape,  but 
the  rich  slave-owners  and  office-holders  stayed  at  home  and 
made  money.  Desertions  grew  more  and  more  frequent,  not 
on  account  of  cowardice,  but  because  the  soldiers  felt  it  to  be 
their  duty  to  provide  for  their  families,  who  were  starving  at 
home.  Hundreds  of  letters  came  every  day  in  which  mothers, 
wives,  and  sisters  told  how  they  were  unable  to  satisfy  the 
wants  of  hungry  children  or  to  get  proper  remedies  for  the 
sick,  and  called  on  them  by  all  they  held  dear  to  come  home 
and  save  them.  The  men  could  not  withstand  such  appeals, 
and  so  it  happened  that  at  least  two  thirds  of  those  enrolled  in 
the  army  were  absent  from  it.  At  last,  so  great  was  the  need 
of  more  men  that  it  was  seriously  proposed  to  make  soldiers 
of  negroes.  General  Lee  favored  this,  but  public  opinion  was 
against  it,  and  it  was  given  up. 

The  supplies  of  food  and  clothing  were  rapidly  giving  out, 
and  Confederate  money  had  become  so  nearly  worthless  that 
farmers  and  storekeepers  refused  to  sell  anything  excepting 
at  the  highest  prices.     The  government  then  seized  what  it 


514  PETERSBURG.  [1865. 

wanted  and  appointed  officers  to  set  a  value  on  the  goods. 
Confederate  paper  money  had  kept  at  par — that  is,  the  paper 
dollar  was  equal  in  value  to  the  gold  dollar — until  November, 
1861;  after  that  it  rapidly  fell  in  value  until,  at  the  beginning 
of  1865,  it  took  five  hundred  paper  dollars  to  buy  one  gold 
dollar.  In  the  following  March  it  took  six  hundred  to  buy 
one,  and  a  month  later  Confederate  paper  money  had  no  value 
at  all. 

Though  most  of  the  people  of  Richmond  had  lost  hope  and 
were  ready  for  any  change,  very  few  knew  the  real  seriousness 
of  the  situation.  They  were  kept  in  ignorance  by  the  govern- 
ment of  all  military  details,  and  the  newspapers  were  forbidden 
to  publish  any  war  news  except  the  meagre  telegrams  furnished 
by  the  war  department.  Even  the  number  and  condition  of 
the  army  were  kept  secret,  for  the  authorities  feared  to  tell  the 
people  that  General  Lee  was  holding  his  lines  of  thirty  miles  in 
length  with  only  forty-five  thousand  poorly  fed  and  poorly  clad 
men  against  more  than  three  times  that  number  of  Union 
troops.  The  newspapers  did  not  dare  to  criticise  openly  any 
of  the  acts  of  the  government,  but  sometimes,  under  cover  of  a 
humorous  style,  they  exposed  the  real  condition  of  things,  and 
showed  what  they  thought  of  the  men  employed  in  public 
positions.  Much  dissatisfaction,  too,  was  felt  with  the  course  of 
President  Davis,  and  a  strong  party  against  him  grew  up  in 
the  Confederate  Congress.  It  was  charged  against  him  that 
while  he  refused  to  listen  to  the  words  of  those  capable  of 
giving  advice,  he  surrounded  himself  with  flatterers  and  un- 
worthy favorites,  to  whom  he  gave  rank  and  position,  to  the 
great  harm  of  the  Confederacy;  indeed,  while  he  had  a  public 
reputation  for  firmness  of  character,  those  who  knew  him  best 
said  that  he  was  one  of  the  weakest  and  most  conceited  of 
men,  and  his  enemies  did  not  hesitate  to  ascribe  the  miserable 
condition  of  the  Confederacy  to  his  unwise  acts.  The  party  in 
Congress  opposed  to  him  insisted  that  the  control  of  military 
affairs  should  be  taken  from  him,  and  it  was  voted  that  the 
command  of  all  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy  should  be  put 
into  the  hands  of  General  Lee.  As  the  President  of  the  Con- 
federate States  was,  like  the  President  of  the  United  States 
under  the  Constitution,  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and 
navy,  this  act  was  felt  by  Mr.  Davis's  friends  to  be  in  the 


1865.]  CONFEDERATE  DOPES.  5l5 

nature  of  an  insult  to  him.  It  is  said  that  Mrs.  Davis  exclaimed, 
when  she  heard  of  it,  "I  would  die  or  be  hung  before  I  would 
submit  to  the  humiliation." 

One  of  General  Lee's  earliest  acts  in  this  position  was  the 
re-appointment  to  the  command  of  the  forces  opposing  General 
Sherman  of  GeneralJoseph  E.  Johnston,  who  had  been  removed 
by  Mr.  Davis,  contrary  to  General  Lee's  advice,  to  make  room 
for  Hood,  a  favorite  of  the  President's.  But  it  was  too  late; 
the  army  which  Hood's  recklessness  had  shattered  had  little 
other  duty  to  perform  than  to  surrender. 

Notwithstanding  the  disasters  which  seemed  to  be  driving 
the  Confederacy  to  its  doom,  President  Davis  and  his  friends 
still  clung  to  the  idea  of  getting  foreign  aid.  This  was  looked 
for  especially  from  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  and  only  a  few 
weeks  before  Richmond  fell  it  was  currently  reported  and  be- 
lieved that  a  messenger  from  him  had  landed  on  the  coast  of 
North  Carolina,  and  was  making  his  way  overland  to  Richmond 
with  the  news  of  the  recognition  of  the  Confederacy  by  France. 
It  is  even  said  that  the  arrival  of  a  hundred  thousand  French 
soldiers  from  Mexico  was  confidently  expected,  and  that  many 
thousand  Poles,  then  living  in  different  foreign  countries,  were 
coming  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  Confederate  army.  But  the 
people  were  tired  of  the  war  and  anxious  for  peace  on  almost  any 
terms,  and  Mr.  Davis  was  forced  by  public  opinion  to  make  an- 
other effort  to  bring  about  a  settlement  of  the  questions  in  dis- 
pute. After  some  other  steps  had  been  taken,  he  appointed  three 
commissioners:  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  the  Confed- 
erate Vice-President;  John  A.  Campbell,  of  Alabama,  formerly  a 
justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court;  and  E.  M.  T.  Hun- 
ter, of  Virginia,  a  distinguished  member  of  the  Confederate 
Senate.  These  gentlemen  went  on  a  steamer  to  Fortress  Monroe, 
and  had  there  a  talk  of  several  hours  with  President  Lincoln 
and  Secretary  Seward.  The  Commissioners  wished  to  have  an 
armistice — that  is,  a  stopping  of  all  hostilities  between  the  two 
parties — and  to  leave  the  main  question  of  the  separation  of  the 
Confederate  States  from  the  Union  to  be  settled  afterward.  But 
President  Lincoln  would  not  consent  to  any  cessation  of  hos- 
tilities unless  the  Confederates  would  disband  all  their  forces 
and  everywhere  recognize  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Union. 
He  said  also  that  slavery  must  be  given  up.  To  these  conditions 


516  PETERSBURG.  [1865. 

the  Confederates  refused  to  consent.  Great  war  meetings  were 
held  in  Richmond,  at  which  speeches  were  made  by  President 
Davis,  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  others,  and  it  was  resolved 
that  they  would  never  lay  down  their  arms  until  their  inde- 
pendence was  won. 

Virginia,  which  from  the  beginning  had  borne  the  brunt  of 
the  war,  had  suffered  more  than  any  other  State.  Its  soil  had 
been  occupied  by  the  two  principal  armies  from  the  opening  of 
the  struggle,  and  the  larger  part  of  the  northern  half  of  its 
territory  had  been  desolated  with  fire  and  sword.  The  estates 
of  many  of  the  oldest  and  best  families  had  been  utterly  ruined, 
little  being  left  of  them  but  the  treeless,  fenceless  soil.  The 
splendid  old-time  mansions,  with  their  treasures  of  art,  their 
libraries,  and  their  heirlooms  of  rare  and  costly  furniture,  had 
disappeared;  the  laborers  who  had  cultivated  the  broad  fields 
had  been  scattered,  and  the  gentlefolk,  who  had  lived  there  a 
life  of  generous  case,  reduced  to  want  and  hardship. 

In  some  of  the  country-houses  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rich- 
mond, which  had  not  yet  felt  so  severely  the  horrors  of  war,  an 
attempt  was  still  made  to  keep  up  a  show  of  the  olden  hospi- 
tality for  which  Virginia  had  been  so  famous.  This  is  well 
illustrated  in  an  account  of  a  Christmas  dinner  given  at  the 
time  (1864)  at  a  residence  below  Richmond,  not  far  from 
the  lines  of  the  two  armies.  The  Avriter*  says  that  flour  was 
then  worth  $000  a  barrel,  siigar  $30  a  pound,  butter  $40  a 
pound,  and  beef  $35  to  $40  a  pound.  Wood  sold  at  $100  a 
cord,  and  coal  could  not  be  had  at  all,  excepting  in  a  few 
cities,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  transportation.  The 
party  at  dinner  was  made  up  of  three  ladies  and  four  gentle- 
men, the  latter  dressed  in  uniform,  for  they  had  come  from  the 
neighboring  lines.  The  ladies  were  dressed  in  home-made  gar- 
ments in  the  fashion  prevailing  at  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
The  clothes  of  one  of  them  were  entirely  of  home-spun  goods, 
and  her  hair  was  fastened  with  "  Confederate  hair-pins,"  made 
of  black  thorns,  with  the  heads  tipped  with  sealing-wax. 

"The  mansion  had  been  proverbial  for  its  hospitality  before 
the  war;  now  the  welcome  was  as  cordial  as  ever,  but  the  board 
was  spread  in  accordance  with  the  necessities  of  the  times.    At 

*J.  D.  McCube. 


1865.]  CONFEDERATE  CHRISTMAS  DINNER.  517 

the  head  of  the  table  was  placed  a  large  ham,  worth  $300,  at 
the  foot  was  the  last  turkey  the  farm  could  boast,  worth  $175. 
The  vegetables  consisted  of  cabbage,  potatoes,  and  hominy, 
worth  at  a  reasonable  calculation  $100.  Corn-bread  was  served, 
flour  having  been  unknown  in  this  house  for  months.  The 
meal  of  which  it  was  made  was  worth  $80  a  bushel,  and  the 
salt  that  seasoned  it  $1  a  pound.  Dessert  there  was  none,  but 
in  its  place  the  hostess  provided  a  coarse  black  molasses,  worth 
$60  a  gallon.  The  same  kind  lady,  as. a  rare  treat  for  her 
guests,  brought  out,  with  a  glow  of  pride,  a  steaming  urn  of 
real  tea — not  sassafras — (worth  $100  a  pound),  at  the  same 
time  warning  the  company  that  they  must  expect  but  one  cup 
apiece,  as  this  was  the  last  of  her  store.  After  this  there  was 
"coffee"  made  from  sweet  potatoes  cut  into  little  bits,  toasted 
brown,  and  ground  to  powder.  Such  was  a  Confederate  Christ- 
mas dinner  in  the  last  winter  of  the  war.  From  this  superb 
repast  the  scale  descended  to  army  rations — a  bit  of  salt  pork, 
corn-bread,  and  sweet-potato  coffee  without  sugar." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Grant  had  cut  all  the  railroads 
around  Petersburg  excepting  the  Southside  or  Lynchburg  Rail- 
way, and  that  this  was  the  only  road  left  by  which  Lee  could 
get  supplies  for  his  army.  He  had  tried  several  times  to  push 
his  left  around  toward  this  railroad,  but  his  efforts  had  been 
foiled  by  Lee.  But  in  the  first  week  in  February  an  advance 
was  made  to  Dinwiddie  Court-House,  near  which  the  Con- 
federates were  met  in  strong  force.  After  a  heavy  fight,  in 
which  the  Union  loss  was  about  two  thousand  and  that  of  the 
enemy  half  as  many,  the  Union  troops  were  obliged  to  fall  back; 
but  the  result  was  a  gain,  for  the  left  of  the  army  was  thus 
extended  to  Hatchers's  Run  (see  map,  page  445).  As  the  lines 
were  thus  extended,  earthworks  were  thrown  up  to  protect  the 
troops,  the  railroad  from  City  Point  was  continued,  and  tele- 
graph wires  were  stretched  so  as  to  connect  the  position  won 
with  headquarters. 

Great  use  was  made  of  the  telegraph  during  the  war.  All 
the  armies  were  provided  with  telegraphic  field-trains,  made 
up  of  two-wheeled  carts,  drawn  by  four  horses,  and  provided 
with  everything  needed  for  telegraphing.  Each  cart  carried 
several  reels,  each  of  which  was  wound  with  a  mile  of  wire. 
The  wire  was  sometimes  unwound  from  the  carts,  and  some- 


518 


PETERSBURG. 


[1865. 


times  the  reels  were  carried  by'hand,  as  shown  in  the  picture. 
They  were  generally  stretched  on  light  poles  set  into  the  ground 
or  held  by  men,  but  sometimes  were  simply  laid  across  fences. 
The  telegraph  was  worked  ill  so  simple  a  way  that  any  man  who 
could  read  and  write  could  operate  it  after  a  day's  practice. 
The  carts  and  men  were  often  close  to  the  front  on  the  battle- 
field, so  that  the  officer  in  charge  could  report  to  and  get  advice 
from  the  commander,  whose  proper  position  was  in  the  rear. 

Grant's  next  move  was  to  order  Sheridan,  then  in  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  to  go  to  Lynchburg  with  a  cavalry  force, 

seize  it  if  possible,  and 
destroy  the  railroad  there, 
and  then  to  go  south  and 
join  Sherman.  Sheridan 
left  Winchester  (Feb.  27) 
with  ten  thousand  cav- 
alry, under  Generals  Mer- 
ritt  and  Custer.  Staun- 
ton was  entered  on  the  2d 
of  March.  At  Waynesboro 
Early  tried  to  stop  his  way 
with  twenty-five  hundred 
men,  but  he  was  quickly 
routed,  with  a  loss  of  six- 
teen hundred  prisoners  and  eleven  guns,  and  Sheridan  rode  on 
to  Charlottesville,  where  he  spent  two  days  in  destroying  Con- 
federate workshops  and  supplies  and  the  railroad  leading  from 
there  toward  Eichmond  and  Lynchburg.  Finding  out  that 
Lynchburg  was  too  strong  for  him  to  take,  he  pushed  for  the 
James  Eiver,  but  it  was  too  high  for  his  pontoons  to  reach 
across,  and  he  was  obliged  to  march  toward  Grant  by  the 
northern  side  of  Richmond.  After  destroying  all  the  locks  on 
the  James  Eiver  Canal  and  many  miles  of  railway,  he  finally 
reached  in  safety  the  army  before  Petersburg  on  the  27th  of 
March.  General  Sherman,  it  will  be  remembered,  reached 
City  Point  on  the  same  day,  and  had  his  consultation  with 
President  Lincoln  and  General  Grant. 

Two  days  before  that  (March  25)  General  Lee  had  made 
his  last  hostile  attempt  against  the  Union  lines.  When  he 
found  himself  hard  pressed  by  Grant's  extension  of  his  lines 


Laying  Wire  for  the  Army  Telegraph. 


1865.]  LEE'S  LAST  ATTACK.  519 

toward  the  left,  he  determined  to  make  an  effort  to  cut  the 
Union  army  in  two.  If  successful,  he  hoped  that  this  would 
cause  Grant  to  draw  in  his  troops  from  the  left,  and  give  him 
an  opportunity  to  withdraw  from  Petersburg  and  join  Johnston 
in  North  Carolina.  The  attack  was  made  at  early  dawn  on 
Fort  Steedman,  near  the  site  of  Burnside's  mine.  The  works 
were  only  about  a  hundred  yards  apart.  The  Union  troops, 
taken  by  surprise  by  the  sudden  dash  of  the  Confederates,  were 
driven  from  their  breastworks,  and  Fort  Steedman  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy  with  about  five  hundred  prisoners.  If  the 
Confederates  had  advanced  quickly  and  seized  the  crest  behind 
they  might  have  succeeded,  but  the  soldiers  could  not  be  in- 
duced to  leave  the  work  they  had  won.  The  Union  troops 
soon  recovered  from  their  surprise,  the  heavy  artillery  of  other 
forts  opened  on  the  enemy  in  Fort  Steedman,  and  fresh  troops 
coming  up  retook  the  fort  with  about  two  thousand  Confed- 
erates who  had  huddled  under  the  breastworks.  At  the  same 
time  the  Union  troops  advanced  against  another  part  of  the 
Confederate  line,  from  which  troops  had  been  drawn  to  make 
the  attack  on  Fort  Steedman,  and  captured  part  of  the  in- 
trenchments  with  more  than  eight  hundred  prisoners.  So  Lee's 
last  attack  ended  only  in  drawing  the  lines  tighter  around  him. 

Grant,  troubled  lest  Lee  should  escape  him,  ordered  Sheri- 
dan to  go  with  his  cavalry  and  two  infantry  corps  round  from 
Dinwiddie  Court-House  and  cut  the  Southside  Kailroad. 
Sheridan  began  the  movement  on  the  29th  of  March,  only  two 
days  after  his  return  from  his  other  expedition.  General  Lee 
saw  the  necessity  of  stopping  this  movement  at  any  risk,  for 
on  this  line  of  railway  his  soldiers  depended  for  their  daily 
supply  of  food.  He  therefore  almost  stripped  his  entrench- 
ments to  meet  the  threatened  attack,  gathering  in  all  about 
seventeen  thousand  men  to  combat  Sheridan's  twenty-five 
thousand. 

Sheridan  spent  the  night  of  the  29th  at  Dinwiddie  Court- 
House.  The  next  day  was  so  stormy  that  nothing  could  be 
done,  but  on  the  31st  he  pushed  forward  to  a  place  called  Five 
Forks,  where  several  roads  meet  (see  map,  page  455).  There 
he  was  met  by  the  Confederate  infantry,  under  Pickett  and 
Johnson,  and  driven  back  nearly  to  Dinwiddie  Court-House. 
In  the  morning  of  April  1st  Sheridan  again  advanced  toward 


520  PETERSBURG.  [1865. 

Five  Forks,  the  Confederates  having  fallen  back  from  his  front 
for  fear  of  being  cut  off  from  Petersburg  by  the  Fifth  Corps, 
under  Warren,  which  had  attacked  them  on  their  left.  The 
Confederates  had  strong  earthworks  at  Five  Forks,  behind 
which  they  made  a  brave  resistance;  but  the  Union  troops 
attacked  them  in  front,  on  the  right,  and  in  the  rear,  and  they 
became  demoralized.  A  grand  charge  was  made  upon  them, 
and  they  fled  in  rout  from  the  field,  most  of  them  throwing 
down  their  arms.  Five  thousand  were  taken  prisoners,  with 
four  guns,  while  Sheridan's  loss  was  not  more  than  one  thou- 
sand. 

Sheridan  won  great  fame  for  his  generalship  in  this  battle, 
which  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  the  war.  When  the 
news  reached  the  army  in  the  trenches  around  Petersburg,  it 
was  received  with  deafening  cheers,  which  sounded  like  a 
knell  to  the  brave  defenders  within.  General  Lee  knew  that 
the  end  had  come  at  last.  His  last  railroad  would  now  be  cut, 
and  he  felt  that  all  he  could  do  was  to  secure  a  retreat  from 
the  lines  he  had  held  so  long  and  so  well.  But  to  do  this  he 
must  gain  time;  so  he  arranged  his  troops  behind  their  earth- 
works to  try  to  repel  the  attack  which  he  felt  would  be  made 
on  the  morrow.  Under  cover  of  a  bloody  repulse  he  might 
slip  away  in  the  night  and  reach  Johnston  in  Xorth  Carolina. 
But  his  great  opponent  understood  the  situation  equally  well. 
Fearful  lest  Lee  should  march  out  and  overwhelm  Sheridan,  he 
sent  reinforcements  to  the  latter  and  kept  up  a  cannonade  on 
the  enemy's  works  all  night  long. 

The  next  morning  (Sunday,  April  2)  at  four  o'clock  a 
grand  assault  was  made  along  the  whole  Union  line  south 
of  Petersburg.  Sharp  fighting  took  place,  the  Confederates 
giving  way  only  when  forced  back  by  superior  numbers.  By 
eight  o'clock  all  the  outer  line  of  defences  had  been  taken;  but 
behind  were  strong  forts  mounted  with  cannon,  which  had 
been  built  to  guard  against  such  a  capture.  The  Confederates 
fell  back  to  these,  and  turned  their  guns  on  the  Union  men  in 
the  outer  forts.  Fort  Alexander,  one  of  the  strongest  of  these 
rear  earthworks,  was  quickly  stormed:  but  Fort  Gregg,  a  second 
one,  held  out  bravely.  Again  and  again  the  Union  men  made 
a  rush  for  its  walls,  but  each  time  they  were  received  with  a 
deadly  fire,  which  left  the  ground  in  its  front  strewn  with 


1865.] 


DEATH  OF  A.   P.   HILL. 


521 


their  bodies.  The  fighting  along  other  parts  of  the  line  was 
stopped  while  the  men  of  both  sides  anxiously  watched  the 
gallant  struggle.  At  last  a  more  determined  effort  was  made, 
and  the  sound  of  cheers  rising  from  the  cloud  of  smoke  which 
hid  the  fort  told  that  it  had  been  won.  Of  the  two  hundred 
and  fifty  men  who  had  taken  part  in  the  defence,  but  thirty 
remained,  while  five  hundred  Union  men  lay  before  the  works. 

With  this  capture  the  Confederate  army  was  cut  in  two. 
General  Lee  had  to  hasten  to  arrange  his  men  to  meet 
the  new  state  of  affairs.  All  he  could  now  do  was  to  gain 
a  little  time  to  try  to  save  what  was  left  of  his  army.  While 
consulting  with  Generals  A.  P.  Hill  and  Mahone  in  the  city, 
the  sounds  of  firing 
seemed  to  come  nearer 
and  nearer.  "  How  is 
this,  General?"  he  said 
to  Hill;  "your  men  are 
giving  way."  General 
Hill  at  once  mounted 
his  horse,  and,  accom- 
panied by  a  single  order- 
ly, rode  to  the  front. 
While  going  down  a  ra- 
vine he  suddenly  came 
upon  a  party  of  Union 
soldiers.  Hill,  who  had 
on  a  citizen's  coat  with 
oidy  the  stars  of  a  colonel 
on  the  collar,  seeing  his  danger,  rode  at  them  and  ordered  them 
to  surrender.  The  audacity  of  the  demand  took  them  by  sur- 
prise, but  they  recovered  themselves  in  a  moment  and  shot 
him  dead.  Thus  fell  A.  P.  Hill,  one  of  Lee's  most  trusted 
officers,  who  had  fought  at  Bull  Run  as  a  colonel  of  infantry, 
and  had  won  all  the  ranks  in  the  Confederate  army  up  to  that 
of  Lieutenant-General. 

At  eleven  o'clock  General  Lee  sent  a  telegram  to  the  War 
Department  in  Richmond,  advising  that  the  authorities  should 
make  ready  to  leave  the  city  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening. 
At  daylight  the  next  morning  the  Union  men  were  alert  and 
ready  to  renew  the  fight.     The  skirmishers  advanced,  but  all 


A.  P.  Hill. 


522 


PETERSBURG. 


[1865. 


was  silent  before  them.  They  crept  over  the  open  space 
between  the  works,  and  up  the  parapet  opposite,  until  they 
could  peep  over.  No  enemy  was  to  be  seen,  and  the  ground 
was  strewn  with  evidences  of  hasty  flight.  The  news  spread 
from  mouth  to  mouth,  the  Union  troops  advanced  through  the 
deserted  works,  and  the  flag  of  the  Union  was  soon  flying  over 
Petersburg. 


Rifle  Tits. 


OHAPTEE   XLII. 
RICHMOND. 

Sunday  in  Richmond.— Rumors  of  Victory.— Gayety  of  the  City.— Prayer-Meetings.— 
Davis  Receives  Lee's  Telegram.— The  News  Kept  Secret.  -  Evacuation.—  Confu- 
sion.—The  City  in  the  Hands  of  the  Mob.— Pillaging  the  Stores.— The  Tobacco 
Warehouses  Fired.— Rams  Blown  Up.—  Bridges  Burned.— The  Fire  Spreads.— A 
Dreadful  Scene.— Capitol  Square.— The  Yankees  !  The  Yankees  !— Burning  Rich- 
mond Seen  from  the  Signal-Tower.— General  Weitzel*  Enters  the  City.— The  Flag 
on  the  Capitol.— An  African  City.— Bress  de  Lord  !  No  mo'  Work  !— Black  Cavalry. 
—Martial  Law.— The  Ruins.— The  Dream  Ended. 

SUNDAY  morning  of  April  2d,  1865,  was  bright  and  beau- 
tiful in  Eichmond.  The  business  streets  were  silent,  and 
few  sounds  were  heard  save  the  solemn  tones  of  the  church 
bells.  All  the  places  of  worship  were  open  and  were  filled  at 
the  usual  hour  with  their  congregations.  A  Confederate  writer 
tells  us  that  none  of  the  people  knew  of  the  terrible  battles  which 
had  taken  place  at  Petersburg,  only  twenty-two  miles  away, 
in  the  previous  three  days.  The  news  had  been  kept  so  secret 
that  not  even  the  newspaper  offices  had  received  any  account  of 
it.  Indeed,  a  rumor  prevailed  that  General  Lee  had  made  a 
night  attack  on  Grant  and  won  a  great  victory  which  insured 
the  independence  of  the  Confederacy.  It  was  also  reported 
that  Johnston  was  marching  to  join  Lee,  who  would  be  able, 
with  such  a  reinforcement,  to  drive  Grant  from  before  Peters- 
burg. 

Though  the  war  bore  heavy  on  the  hearts  of  the  people  and 
a  few  had  even  begun  to  lose  hope  in  the  success  of  the  cause, 
there  never  had  been  much  fear  that  Richmond  would  be  taken 
by  the  enemy.  The  thunder  of  McClellan's  guns  had  been 
heard  almost  at  their  doors,  yet  he  had  been  driven  away,  and 
the  general  feeling  was  that  so  long  as  Lee  and  his  army  re- 
mained they  were  safe  from  all  the  forces  Grant  could  bring 
against  them.  So  most  of  the  people  kept  up  their  spirits,  and 
the  favorite  singer  at  the  theatre  sang  nightly  "Farewell  to 
the  Star-Spangled  Banner"'*  to  as  entlmsiastic  audiences  as 
had  greeted  it  when  it  was  first  performed.     Alas !  they  did  not 

*  See  Appendix,  page  570. 


524  RICHMOND.  [1865. 

know  to  what  straits  their  gallant  defender  had  been  driven, 
nor  even  the  number  of  his  half-fed  soldiers.  The  city  was 
never  gayer  than  in  the  winter  before  its  fall:  balls,  parties, 
private  theatricals,  and  other  amusements  were  abundant — 
so  much  so  that  the  clergymen  felt  it  their  duty  to  preach 
against  it  as  unseemly  with  bloodshed  and  death  so  near  them. 
Eeligious  people  did  all  they  could  to  aid  the  ministers,  and  so 
it  happened  that  the  churches  were  generally  well  filled,  not 
only  on  Sundays,  but  also  on  other  days,  when  prayer-meetings 
were  held  in  them.  President  Davis  himself  was  a  devout 
attendant  at  St.  Paul's  Episcopal  Church,  of  which  he  was  a 
member. 

Mr.  Davis  was  seated  in  his  pew  on  that  pleasant  Sunday 
morning,  when,  shortly  after  eleven  o'clock,  an  officer  entered, 
and  walking  quietly  up  the  aisle  handed  him  a  slip  of  paper. 
It  was  General  Lee's  telegram  to  the  War  Department  advising 
that  preparations  should  be  made  at  once  for  the  evacuation  of 
the  city.  Mr.  Davis  arose  and  went  silently  out  of  the  church. 
The  congregation  Avondered  what  could  have  happened,  and 
there  was  a  brief  pause,  but  no  intimation  was  given  of  the 
news.  After  the  services  the  rector  announced  that  General 
Ewell,  then  the  commander  in  Richmond,  desired  the  home- 
guard  to  assemble  at  three  O'clock  in  the  afternoon.  Even  after 
the  churches  were  dismissed  the  news  was  still  kept  from  the 
people,  only  the  officials  and  public  men  being  let  into  the 
secret.  Many  a  family  ate  their  dinner  in  peace  that  day, 
wholly  unconscious  that  another  twenty-four  hours  would  see 
their  loved  city  in  ruins  and  a  hostile  army  in  its  streets. 

In  the  course  of  the  afternoon  the  ill  tidings  passed  from 
lip  to  lip,  and  even  those  who  had  expressed  the  strongest 
belief  in  the  impregnability  of  the  fortifications  and  of  the 
ability  of  General  Lee  became  convinced  that  the  government 
was  about  to  leave  the  city.  As  no  one  can  paint  so  truly  the 
scenes  of  that  day  as  an  eye-witness,  we  will  give  the  account 
in  the  words  of  Mr.  Pollard,  the  historian,  who  was  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  Richmond  Examiner  at  the  time: 

"  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  the  signs  of  evacuation 
became  apparent  to  the  incredulous.  Wagons  on  the  streets 
were  being  hastily  loaded  at  the  departments  with  boxes, 
trunks,  etc.,  and  driven  to  the  Danville  depot.  .  .  .  Vehicles 


1865.1 


RICHMOND  AND    VICINITY. 


525 


Richmond  and  Vicinity,  Showing  the  Fortifications, 


526  RICHMOND.  [1865. 

suddenly  rose  to  a  premium  value  that  wa.s  astounding;  and 
ten,  fifteen,  and  even  a  hundred  dollars,  in  gold  or  Federal 
currency,  was  offered  for  a  conveyance.  Suddenly,  as  if  by 
magic,  the  streets  became  filled  with  men,  walking  as  though 
for  a  wager,  and  behind  them  excited  negroes  with  trunks, 
bundles,  and  luggage  of  every  description.  All  over  the  city  it 
was  the  same — wagons,  trunks,  bandboxes,  and  their  owners, 
a  mass  of  hurrying  fugitives,  filling  the  streets.  The  banks  were 
all  open,  and  depositors  were  as  busy  as  bees  removing  their 
specie  deposits;  and  the  directors  were  equally  active  in  getting 
off  their  bullion.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  of  paper 
money  were  destroyed,  both  State  and  Confederate.  Night 
came,  and  with  it  came  confusion  worse  confounded.  There 
was  no  sleep  for  human  eyes  in  Richmond  that  night. 

''The  City  Council  had  met  in  the  evening  and  resolved  to 
destroy  all  the  liquor  in  the  city,  to  avoid  the  disorder  conse- 
quent on  the  temptation  to  drink  at  such  a  time.  About 
the  hour  of  midnight  the  work  commenced,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  committees  of  citizens  in  all  the  wards.  Hundreds  of 
barrels  of  liquor  were  rolled  into  the  streets  and  the  heads 
knocked  in.  The  gutters  ran  with  a  liquor  freshet,  and  the 
fumes  filled  and  impregnated  the  air.  Fine  cases  of  bottled 
liquors  were  tossed  into  the  street  from  third-story  windows 
and  wrecked  into  a  thousand  pieces.  As  the  work  progressed 
some  straggling  soldiers,  retreating  through  the  city,  man- 
aged to  get  hold  of  a  quantity  of  the  liquor.  From  that 
moment  law  and  order  ceased  to  exist.  Many  of  the  stores 
were  pillaged,  and  the  sidewalks  were  encumbered  with  broken 
glass,  where  the  thieves  had  smashed  the  windows  in  their  reck- 
less haste  to  lay  hands  on  the  plunder  within.  The  air  was 
filled  with  wild  cries  of  distress  or  the  yells  of  roving  pillagers. 

"But  a  more  terrible  element  was  to  appear  on  the  scene. 
An  order  had  been  issued  from  Gen.  Ewell's  headquarters  to 
fire  the  four  principal  tobacco  warehouses  in  the  city.  .  .  . 
The  warehouses  were  fired.  The  rams  in  the  James  River 
were  blown  up.  The  Richmond,  Virginia,  and  another  one 
were  all  blown  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven.  The  Patrick 
Henry,  a  receiving-ship,  was  scuttled.  Such  shipping,  very 
little  in  amount,  as  was  lying  at  the  Richmond  wharves  was 
also  fired,  save  the  flag-of -truce  steamer  Allison. 


1865.] 


FIRE  AND  THE  MOB. 


527 


"  The  bridges  leading  out  of  the  city — namely,  the  Danville 
railroad  bridge,  the  Petersburg  railroad  bridge,  Mayo's  bridge 
leading  to  Manchester  and  the  opposite  side  of  the  James  * — 
were  also  fired,  and  were  soon  wrapped  in  flames. 

"Morning  broke  upon  a  scene  such  as  those  who  witnessed 
it  can  never  forget.  The  roar  of  an  immense  conflagration 
sounded  in  their  ears;  tongues  of  flame  leaped  from  street  to 
street;  and  in  this  baleful  glare  were  to  be  seen,  as  of  demons, 
the  figures  of  busy  plunderers,  moving,  pushing,  rioting,  through 
the  black  smoke  and  into  the  open  street,  bearing  away  every 
conceivable  sort  of  plunder. 

"The  scene  at  the  commissary  depot,  at  the  head  of  the 
dock,  beggared  descrip- 
tion. Hundreds  of  gov- 
ernment wagons  were 
loaded  with  bacon,  flour, 
and  whiskey,  and  driven 
off  in  hot  haste  to  join 
the  retreating  army. 
Thronging  about  the 
depot  were  hundreds  of 
men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, black  and  white, 
provided  with  capacious 
bags,  baskets,  tubs,  buck- 
ets, tin  pans,  and  aprons; 
cursing,  pushing,  and 
crowding ;  awaiting  the 
throwing  open  of  the  doors  and  the  order  for  each  to  help 
himself. 

"About  sunrise  the  doors  were  opened  to  the  populace, 
and  a  rush  that  almost  seemed  to  carry  the  building  off  its 
foundation  was  made,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds  of 
bacon,  flour,  etc.,  were  soon  swept  away  by  a  clamorous  crowd." 

The  order  for  the  destruction  of  the  cotton  and  tobacco  in 
the  warehouses  was  given  by  the  Confederate  War  Depart- 
ment. General  Ewell  remonstrated  against  it,  for  he  feared 
that  its  execution  would  endanger  the  safety  of  the  whole  city; 


Richard  S.  Ewell. 


*  These  three  bridges  are  shown  in  the  map  of  Richmond  and  vicinity. 


528  RICHMOND.  [1865. 

but  the  authorities  had  determined  that  no  public  property 
should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  "Yankees,"  and  he  was 
obliged  to  obey. 

By  seven  o'clock  of  Monday  morning  all  the  Confederate 
troops  were  out  of  the  city,  on  their  way  southward,  leaving 
Richmond  in  flames  behind  them.  The  streets  were  still  filled 
with  a  riotous  throng  of  men  and  women,  black  and  white, 
laden  with  the  plunder  of  the  burning  stores  and  warehouses. 
Here  was  a  stalwart  negro  with  a  bag  of  coffee  or  of  sugar  upon 
his  back;  another  with  a  bag  crammed  with  shoes  or  hats;  a 
third  with  several  pieces  of  cotton  or  woollen  cloth  on  his  head, 
or  with  an  armful  of  ready-made  clothing;  a  woman  with  a 
dozen  hoop-skirts;  and  even  children  with  boxes  of  thread, 
ribbons,  and  other  small  goods.  The  Babel  of  their  voices  was 
almost  drowned  in  the  roar  of  the  flames  and  the  explosion 
of  gunpowder.  Capitol  Square  was  crowded  with  frightened 
women  and  children,  huddled  among  piles  of  furniture  and 
household  goods  saved  from  their  burning  homes.  The  Con- 
federate rear-guard  had  scarcely  left  when  a  cry  of  "The 
Yankees  !  the  Yankees !"  arose  in  Main  Street.  The  mob 
rushed  down  the  street  and  into  the  by-ways  as  if  they  feared 
the  coming  of  an  avenger,  and  necks  were  craned  from  windows 
and  balconies  to  catch  a  sight  of  the  hated  blue-coats. 

The  reader  will  remember  that  while  Grant  with  the  main 
part  of  his  army  held  the  lines  south  of  Petersburg,  another 
force  held  Bermuda  Hundred,  and  still  another  held  the  Union 
works  on  the  north  side  of  the  James  River,  threatening  the 
fortifications  of  Richmond.  The  last  was  in  command  of 
General  Godfrey  Weitzel.  Part  of  his  force  had  been  taken  by 
Grant  to  aid  in  the  assault  on  Petersburg,  and  in  order  to  keep 
his  weakness  from  becoming  known  to  the  enemy  he  had  been 
ordered  to  keep  up  a  great  show  of  strength.  This  he  had 
done  so  successfully  that  Longstreet  had  been  deceived  and  had 
kept  many  men  in  the  defences  opposite  him  who  might  other- 
wise have  gone  to  help  Lee.  On  Sunday  night  all  the  bands 
were  kept  playing.  The  Confederate  bands  replied,  and  the 
air  was  filled  with  the  music  of  "  Hail,  Columbia"  and  "  Dixie," 
the  "Star-Spangled  Banner"  and  the  "Bonnie  Blue  Flag."* 

*  See  Appendix,  pages  571  and  572. 


1865.  J 


WEITZEVS  ADVANCE. 


529 


At  midnight  the  Union  camp  was  at  rest.  But  General  Weit- 
zel,  knowing  of  Grant's  success  at  Petersburg,  suspected  that 
the  Confederates  would  leave  during  the  night,  and  was  up  and 
watching  with  some  of  his  officers.  Toward  morning  the 
sound  of  a  heavy  explosion  was  heard.  Lieutenant  Johnston 
De  Peyster,  one  of  his  aids,  went  to  the  top  of  the  signal-tower, 
a  timber  building  about  seventy  feet  high,  from  which  the 
steeples  of  both  Eichmond  and  Petersburg  could  be  seen.  He 
saw  a  great  light  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Richmond,  but  could 
not  discover  what  it  was.  Not 
long  afterward  a  Confederate 
deserter  brought  news  that 
Richmond  was  being  evacuated 
by  its  defenders. 

At  daylight  troops  were 
sent  toward  the  city,  with  or- 
ders to  move  slowly  and  with 
caution,  for  it  was  known  that 
the  ground  was  filled  with 
torpedoes.  Fortunately,  the 
place  of  each  torpedo  had  been 
marked  by  a  little  red  flag  to 
enable  the  Confederates  them- 
selves to  guard  against  them, 
and  they,  in  the  hurry  of  their 
flight,  had  failed  to  remove 
them;  so  they  were  easily  found 
and  taken  up  by  the  advance 
guard.  Three  lines  of  earth- 
works and  forts  were  passed, 

each  commanding  the  one  in  front  of  it.  Hundreds  of  cannons, 
many  of  them  the  spoil  of  the  Norfolk  Navy- Yard,  were 
mounted  upon  them.  Within  the  inner  line  were  the  tents  of 
the  soldiers,  with  their  furniture  as  they  had  left  it.  The 
roads  leading  into  the  city  were  strewn  with  Aveapons  and  war 
material.  As  the  suburbs  Avere  entered  a  fearful  scene  lay 
before  them — the  city  in  a  blaze,  the  air  thick  with  smoke  and 
glowing  sparks,  and  resounding  with  the  crash  of  falling  walls 
and  frecpaent  explosions. 


Signal-Tower. 


530 


RICHMOND. 


[1865. 


General  Weitzel  sent  forward  a  squad  of  Massachusetts 
cavalry  to  take  possession.  It  was  this  little  body  of  forty 
troopers  whose  appearance  in  Main  Street  had  caused  the  cry 
of  "  The  Yankees"  to  be  raised  by  the  mob.  As  the  crowd  ran 
up  the  street,  cursing  and  screaming,  the  cavalry  rode  quietly 
along,  gazing  curiously  around,  but  interfering  with  no  one. 
Presently  they  broke  into  a  trot  for  the  public  square,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  two  guidons,  or  small  cavalry  flags,  were  placed  on 
the  Capitol. 

An  hour  afterward  General  Weitzel  and  staff  rode  in,  and 
the  flag  of  the  Union  was  hoisted  over  the  Capitol  by  the  hands 
of  Lieutenant  De  Peyster.     Soon  Main  Street  was  filled  with 


Capitol  at  Richmond. 

an  unbroken  line  of  blue-coats,  with  bayonets  gleaming  in 
the  sun,  marching  steadily  to  the  inspiring  strains  of  military 
music.  As  they  turned  the  corner  at  the  Exchange  Hotel,  a 
wild  burst  of  cheers  went  up  from  each  regiment.  The  people 
had  awaited  the  coming  of  the  Union  troops  with  fear  and 
trembling,  for  they  had  been  taught  to  believe  that  their  city 
would  be  given  up  to  pillage.  In  anticipation  of  such  a  fate, 
jewelry  and  silverware  had  been  hidden  or  sent  out  of  town, 
and  old  men  prepared  to  defend  their  families  from  expected 
insult.  Few  whites  were  to  be  seen  in  the  streets  when  the 
army  entered,  but  the  blacks  thronged  every  sidewalk,  and 
Eichmond  appeared  to  have  been  changed  into  an  African  city. 


1865,] 


A  BLACK  WELCOME. 


531 


Some  of  these  gazed  quietly  as  they  would  at  any  other  spec- 
tacle, but  many  waved  their  hats  and  cheered  in  answer  to  the 
troops,  and  a  few  grasped  the  hands  of  the  soldiers  as  they 
passed,  with  such  expressions  as  "Welcome!  You's  welcome'. 
Glad  to  see  you,  sar!  Bress  de  Lord,  dese  hands  do  no  mo' 
work!"  The  poor  creatures  evidently  thought  that  the  day  of 
jubilee,  to  which  they  had  so  long  looked  forward,  had  really 
come,  and  that  all  of  their  color  were  thenceforth  to  lead  a  life 
of  elegant  ease,  free  from  toil  and  care.  The  negro  regiments 
were  received  by  them  still  more   heartily  than   their  white 


Libby  Prison. 


comrades,  and  the  black  soldiers  answered  their  cheers  with  a 
pardonable  pride.  One  regiment  of  colored  cavalry,  seeing  by 
whom  they  were  surrounded,  rose  in  their  stirrups,  and,  with 
their  white  eyes  and  teeth  gleaming,  waved  their  sabres  and  rent 
the  air  with  their  wild  shouts.  It  can  scarcely  be  wondered 
that  the  citizens  who  witnessed  this  sight  should  have  looked 
upon  these  men,  many  of  whom  were  escaped  slaves,  with  a 
shudder,  and  dreaded  the  moment  when  they  should  be  turned 
loose  upon  them.  Fortunately,  their  fears  were  unfounded. 
The  best  of  discipline  prevailed,  and  Confederate  writers  bear 


532  RICHMOND.  [1865. 

testimony  to  the  fact  that  "  the  troops  behaved  astonishingly 
well,  and  were  remarkably  courteous  and  respectful." 

General  Weitzel  made  his  headquarters  in  the  Capitol,  and 
his  home  in  the  house  lately  occupied  by  Mr.  Davis  (see  page 
79).  The  city  was  put  under  martial  law,  with  General  Sbepley 
as  military  governor.  Orders  were  issued  forbidding  officers 
or  soldiers  entering  any  private  dwelling,  taking  any  private 
property,  or  using  offensive  words  or  gestures  toward  citizens; 
and  proclaiming  that  no  treasonable  expressions  or  insults  to 
the  flag  would  be  allowed.  The  soldiers  at  once  set  to  work  to 
put  out  the  fire,  and  but  for  their  efforts  all  Richmond  would 
have  been  burned  to  the  ground.  Toward  night  the  flames 
were  subdued,  but  not  until  the  business  part  of  the  city  was  in 
ruins.  Acres  of  ground  had  been  burned  over;  every  bank 
and  insurance  office,  most  of  the  fashionable  stores,  one  of  the 
principal  churches,  and  many  large  warehouses,  mills,  depots, 
and  foundries  had  been  swept  away.  Among  the  buildings 
spared  by  the  fire  was  Libby  Prison,  in  Avhich  so  many  Union 
men  had  suffered.  When  night  fell  a  strange  quiet  came  over 
the  blackened  city,  and,  worn  out  by  the  excitement  of  the  past 
twenty-four  hours,  men  went  to  rest  with  saddened  hearts,  and 
with  the  feeling  that  their  feverish  dream  was  at  last  ended  in 
ashes  and  desolation. 


«_*jWrf 


CHAPTER   XLIII. 

SURRENDER    OF    LEE. 

Lee's  Misfortune.— Davis  at  Danville.— A  Fatal  Delay.— Grant  in  Pursuit.— Sheridan. 
—A  Starving  Army.— Sailor's  Creek.— Capture  of  Evvell.— Across  the  Appomattox. 
—A  Hopeless  Struggle.  —  Grant's  Letter.  —  Lee  asks  for  Terms.  —  Appomattox 
Court-House.— Sheridan  in  Front.— A  Surprise.— Flag  of  Truce.— The  McLean 
House.— Grant  and  Lee.— Grant's  Magnanimity.— Painful  Scene.— Lee  in  Richmond. 
—Last  Parade  of  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia.— Joy  in  the  North.— Stanton's 
Order. 

AFTER  General  Lee  had  sent  the  telegram  to  Mr.  Davis, 
informing  him  that  Richmond  must  be  evacuated,  he 
spent  the  rest  of  the  day  in  making  preparations  for  the 
retreat.  Among  other  despatches  sent  was  one  ordering  stores 
for  the  army  to  be  sent  from  Danville  to  Amelia  Court-House, 
where  he  expected  all  his  troops,  both  from  Petersburg  and 
Richmond,  to  meet.  The  order  was  obeyed,  but  when  the 
officer  in  charge  of  the  trains  reached  Amelia  Court-House  he 
received  other  orders  from  Richmond  to  go  at  once  to  that  city, 
where  the  cars  were  needed  to  remove  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment and  its  effects.  Without  stopping  to  unload  his  cars,  the 
officer  pushed  on  to  Richmond,  and  so  it  happened  that  all  the 
rations  on  which  General  Lee  depended  to  feed  his  army  were 
burned  there. 

President  Davis,  on  leaving  Richmond,  went  to  Danville, 
near  the  border  of  North  Carolina,  where  General  Lee  hoped  to 
form  a  junction  between  his  own  army  and  that  of  General 
Johnston.  To  do  this  it  was  necessary  to  reach  Burke's  or 
Burksville  Station,  fifty-two  miles  west  of  Petersburg,  before 
Grant  could  cut  him  off.  By  his  rapid  march  on  Sunday  night 
he  had  gained  many  miles.  All  day  Monday  he  pressed  on, 
and  still  there  were  no  signs  of  pursuit.  The  chances  seemed 
to  be  in  his  favor;  if  he  could  do  as  well  the  next  day,  Grant 
could  not  overtake  him,  for  the  roads  over  which  he  would  pass 
were  in  better  condition  than  those  the  Union  army  would 
have  to  march  over.  The  Appomattox  River  was  crossed  in 
safety,  and  Amelia  Court-House,  thirty-eight  miles  west  of 
Richmond,  was  reached  on  Tuesday,  April  4th.     When  Lee 


534 


SUBBENDEB  OF  LEE. 


[1865. 


heard  what  had  befallen  him  and  found  no  food  there  for  his 
half-starved  men,  who  had  marched  from  Petersburg  with  but 
one  day's  rations,  he  must  have  felt  that  his  condition  was 
hopeless.  All  he  had  gained  by  his  hurried  march  was  lost; 
but  with  his  usual  energy  he  set  about  procuring  food  from 

the  country  round,  sending  out 
foraging  parties  in  every  direc- 
tion. This  caused  a  delay  which 
proved  fatal  to  him. 

Grant  had  begun  a  pursuit 
on  Monday  morning,  as  soon  as 
Lee's  retreat  had  become  known. 
He  saw  through  Lee's  plan,  and 
hastened  toward  Burke's  Sta- 
tion, in  hope  of  reaching  it  be- 
fore him.  On  the  afternoon  of 
Tuesday  (April  4)  Sheridan  and 
his  cavalry  reached  Jettersville 
(see  map)  on  the  Danville  Rail- 
road, seven  miles  from  Amelia. 
This  was  directly  in  Lee's  path, 
and  cut  him  off  from  Burksville. 
Had  Lee  been  able  to  move  that 
day  he  might  have  cut  his  way 
through  Sheridan,  but  he  was 
still  delayed  trying  to  procure 
supplies.  At  evening  Sheridan 
was  reinforced  by  infantry,  and 
was  too  strong  for  his  opponent. 
The  next  day  part  of  his  cavalry 
destroyed  at  Paine's  Cross-Roads 
a  train  of  one  hundred  and  eighty 
wagons,  and  captured  five  guns 
and  many  prisoners. 
During  the  night  of  Wednesday  Lee  moved  toward  Farm- 
ville,  with  the  intention  of  crossing  the  Appomattox  there  and 
escaping  toward  Lynchburg  and  into  the  mountains.  But  his 
men  were  so  weak  from  hunger  that  they  made  but  little  pro- 
gress. Many  straggled  over  the  fields  looking  for  something  to 
eat,  chewing  even  the  buds  and  twigs  of  trees  to  quiet  their  pangs. 


Lee's  Retreat  to  Appomattox  Court- 
House. 


1865.]  THE  PURSUIT.  535 

Many  dropped  from  exhaustion,  and  hundreds  threw  away  the 
arms  which  they  were  no  longer  able  to  carry.  The  officers, 
almost  as  badly  off  as  the  privates,  made  few  efforts  to  keep 
their  men  together.  The  horses  and  mules,  alike  hungry,  had 
not  strength  enough  to  do  their  work,  and  dropped  by  the 
wayside.  The  roads  became  blocked  with  wagons,  which  were 
set  on  fire  to  keep  them  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  Most  of  the  wagons  were  loaded  with  ammunition, 
the  explosion  of  which  added  to  the  horrors  of  the  retreat. 
Behind  and  on  the  flank  of  the  shattered  columns  followed 
Sheridan,  striking  at  every  weak  point.  A  running  fight  was 
kept  up  all  day  long,  Lee's  men,  weak  as  they  were,  fighting 
with  desperate  courage.  But  their  enemies  were  too  strong  for 
them,  and  almost  every  hour  lopped  off  part  of  their  column. 
At  one  time  four  hundred  wagons,  sixteen  cannons,  and  hun- 
dreds of  prisoners  were  taken;  at  another,  near  Sailor's  Creek, 
the  whole  of  E  well's  corps,  several  thousand  strong,  with  Gen- 
erals Ewell,  Custis  Lee,  Kershaw,  and  others,  were  surrounded 
and  made  to  throw  down  their  arms. 

The  Confederates  succeeded  in  crossing  the  Appomattox 
River  near  Farmyille  during  the  night  of  Thursday  (April  6). 
But  so  close  was  the  pursuit  that  the  bridge  there  was  seized 
before  it  could  be  destroyed,  and  some  of  the  Union  troops 
captured  eighteen  pieces  of  artillery  from  the  enemy's  rear- 
guard. Lee's  officers  had  by  this  time  made  up  their  minds 
that  it  was  useless  to  continue  the  struggle,  and  resolved  to 
advise  their  commander  that  the  time  had  come  for  the  sur- 
render of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  But  General  Lee 
was  spared  the  humiliation  of  making  the  offer,  for  the  next 
day  General  Grant,  feeling  the  impossibility  of  his  enemy's 
escape,  and  desiring  to  save  further  bloodshed,  sent  him  from 
Farmville  the  following  note: 

"April  7,  1865. 
"General:  The  result  of  the  last  week  must  convince  you  of  the 
hopelessness  of  further  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia  in  this  struggle.  I  feel  that  it  is  so,  and  regard  it  as  my  duty  to 
shift  from  myself  the  responsibility  of  any  further  effusion  of  blood,  by 
asking  of  you  the  surrender  of  that  portion  of  the  Confederate  States 
army  known  as  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 

"U.  S.  Grant,  Lieutenant-General. 
"General  R.  E.  Lee." 


536  SURRENDER  OF  LEE.  1865.] 

During  the  7th  the  Confederates  repulsed  an  attack  of  a 
part  of  the  Second  Corps,  and  General  Lee,  feeling  a  little 
encouraged,  wrote  to  General  Grant,  in  answer  to  his  letter, 
that  he  did  not  agree  with  him  that  further  resistance  was 
hopeless,  but  asked  what  terms  he  would  offer  on  condition  of 
surrender.  Grant  replied  (April  8)  that  he  would  ask  but  one 
condition — that  the  men  and  officers  surrendered  should  not 
again  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States  until  properly 
exchanged.  Upon  this  Lee  wrote  again  the  same  day  that  he 
did  not  propose  to  surrender,  but  was  willing  to  meet  Grant 
to  discuss  the  question  of  peace.  On  the  next  morning  (April  9) 
Grant  replied,  declining  the  meeting,  and  saying  that  he  had 
no  authority  to  treat  on  the  subject  of  peace. 

While  this  correspondence  was  going  on  the  Confederates 
were  marching  toward  Appomattox  Court-House.  They  had 
obtained  some  rations  on  the  morning  of  the  7th,  aud  were 
better  able  to  endure  fatigue.  During  the  7th  their  course  led 
them  through  dense  thickets  of  oak  and  pine,  but  on  the  8th 
they  were  on  a  good  road,  and  made  more  rapid  progress.  At 
dark  the  head  of  the  column  had  reached  the  Court-House, 
while  the  rear  was  only  a  few  miles  behind.  ~No  enemy  was  to 
be  seen;  the  bands  played  lively  airs,  the  men's  spirits  began  to 
revive,  and  all  hoped  that  they  had  at  last  a  chance  to  pass  a 
comfortable  night.  But  about  midnight  the  rumble  of  distant 
artillery  was  heard  in  front,  and  Lee's  last  hope  was  gone. 
Sheridan  was  between  him  and  Lynchburg. 

Sheridan  had  heard  that  some  supply-trains  were  awaiting 
Lee  at  Appomattox  Station,  about  five  miles  south  of  the 
Court-House,  and  he  at  once  concluded  that  Lee  was  marching 
for  that  place.  By  a  forced  march,  General  Custer,  who  com- 
manded the  advance,  reached  that  place  about  midnight,  cap- 
tured the  trains,  and  forced  back  the  advance  of  the  Confeder- 
ates, which  had  just  reached  there,  taking  from  them  twenty-five 
guns  and  many  wagons.  Sheridan  hurried  up  some  of  the 
infantry,  for  he  saw  that  there  was  now  an  opportunity  to  cap- 
ture all  of  Lee's  army. 

Lee  supposed  that  there  was  only  cavalry  in  his  front,  and 
prepared  to  cut  his  way  through.  He  made  the  attempt  at 
daybreak  the  next  morning  (April  9).  His  army  had  then 
dwindled  to  eight  thousand  men  with  muskets,  but  behind 


1865.]  THE  INTERVIEW.  537 

them  were  several  thousand  stragglers  who  had  lost  their  arms 
and  accoutrements,  and  in  many  cases  even  their  hats  and 
shoes.  The  attack  was  made  by  General  Gordon's  division 
with  so  much  vigor  that  Sheridan's  men,  who  had  dismounted, 
were  forced  back.  Sheridan  ordered  them  to  fall  back  slowly 
until  the  infantry,  who  were  footsore  from  their  forced  march, 
could  come  up.  The  Confederates  pushed  on,  supposing  that 
they  were  breaking  through  the  cavalry  lines,  when  of  a  sudden 
the  horsemen  withdrew  to  one  side,  and  behind,  drawn  up  in 
line  of  battle,  was  a  solid  body  of  infantry.  The  Confederates, 
appalled  at  the  sight  of  the  muskets  and  gleaming  bayonets, 
fell  back.  Sheridan's  horsemen  quickly  remounted,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  were  on  the  flanks  of  the  enemy  ready  to  charge. 
Just  then  a  white  flag  was  seen  coming  forward,  and  the  attack 
was  suspended.  Lee  had  sent  to  ask  for  a  suspension  of  hos- 
tilities while  he  went  to  the  rear  to  see  General  Grant. 

Early  on  that  same  morning,  while  Gordon  was  attacking 
Sheridan,  Generals  Lee,  Longstreet,  and  Mali  one,  the  last  the 
commander  of  one  of  Longstreet's  divisions,  sat  around  a  camp- 
fire  at  Lee's  headquarters.  After  a  long  and  earnest  consulta- 
tion it  was  decided  that  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  surrender. 
Longstreet  and  Mahone  declared  that  the  army  would  accept 
none  but  honorable  terms.  General  Lee  replied  that  Grant 
had  offered  such  terms,  but  he  was  not  sure  that  he  would  still 
grant  them  after  his  rejection  of  them.  But  Lee  felt  that  it 
was  his  duty  to  do  the  best  he  could  for  his  army,  so,  leaving 
Longstreet  in  charge,  he  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  to  see 
Grant. 

Grant  was  hastening,  about  noon,  to  join  Sheridan,  when 
he  received  a  note  from  Lee  asking  an  interview.  He  at  once 
consented,  and  arrangements  were  made  for  a  meeting  in  the 
house  of  Wilmer  McLean  at  Appomattox  Court-House.  It  was 
a  square  brick  house,  the  largest  in  the  hamlet,  and  was  sur- 
rounded by  trees  and  a  garden  filled  with  flowers.  When  the 
Union  commander  reached  the  house,  Lee's  horse,  a  fine  iron- 
gray,  was  nibbling  the  grass  in  front,  in  charge  of  a  Confed- 
erate soldier.  Grant,  who  was  accompanied  by  Generals  Sheri- 
dan and  Ord  and  their  staffs,  had  ridden  thirty-seven  miles 
that  morning,  and  was  covered  with  dust  and  mud.  He  wore 
no  sword  and  no  signs  of  rank  but  the  three  silver  stars  of  a 


538 


SURRENDER  OF  LEE. 


[1865. 


lieutenant-general.  Leaving  the  rest  of  the  officers  on  the 
porch,  Grant  and  two  aids  entered  the  house  and  found  within 
Lee  and  Colonel  Marshall,  his  chief  of  staff.  Lee  was  dressed 
in  a  new  uniform  of  Confederate  gray,  a  military  hat  with  a 
gold  cord,  high  riding- boots,  and  buckskin  gauntlets.  He 
wore  all  the  insignia  of  his  rank,  and  at  his  side  was  the  splen- 
did dress  sword  which  had  been  given  him  by  the  State  of 
Virginia. 

The  meeting  was  very  simple,  befitting  the  character  of  the 
two  men  and  the  importance  of  the  occasion.     After  shaking 


hands  they  proceeded  at  once  to  business.  Grant  wrote  out 
the  terms,  Lee  accepted  them,  and  both  signed  the  paper. 
They  were  to  the  effect  that  the  Confederate  army  surrendered, 
giving  up  all  public  property,  the  officers  keeping  their  horses, 
side-arms,  and  baggage.  After  all  this  was  done,  Lee  said  he 
had  forgotten  one  thing:  that  many  of  the  cavalry  and  artillery 
men  owned  the  horses  which  they  used;  but,  he  continued,  it 
is  "too  late,  of  course,  to  speak  of  that  now." 

"I  will  instruct  my  paroling  officers,"  replied  Grant,  "that 
all  the  enlisted  men  of  your  cavalry  and  artillery  who  own 
horses    are  to  retain    them,   just  as  the  officers  do  theirs. 


1865.]  &RANT  AND  LEE.  539 

They  will  need  them  for  their  spring  plowing  and  other  farm 
work." 

"General,"  said  Lee,  with  earnestness,  "there  is  nothing 
that  you  could  have  done  to  accomplish  more  good  either  for 
them  or  the  government." 

At  half-past  three  o'clock  that  afternoon  General  Lee  re- 
turned to  his  headquarters.  As  he  rode  through  the  ranks 
his  men  saw  that  all  was  over.  With  one  impulse  they  rushed 
toward  their  beloved  commander  and  strove  with  each  other  to 
press  his  hand.  With  tears  upon  his  cheeks,  General  Lee 
turned  toward  his  comrades,  and,  as  soon  as  he  could  com- 
mand his  voice,  said:  "Men,  we  have  fought  through  the  war 
together.  I  have  done  the  best  that  I  could  for  you."  It  is 
said  by  one  who  was  present  that  there  was  not  a  dry  eye 
among  all  who  looked  upon  the  scene.  The  next  day  General 
Lee  issued  a  farewell  address 

to  his  army.     On  the  12th        //^     //^  /  - 

he  returned  to  Richmond,  Ci^  -</,  *£^2<?~* ttZsc^C- 
and  entered  as  a  paroled 
prisoner  of  war  the  city  he 
had  so  long  defended.  He 
advised  the  Southern  people 
to  accept  the  results  of  the 
war,  and  not  to  hold  them- 

SlGNATURES  OP  GRANT  AND  LEE. 

selves  aloof  and  keep  up  the 

bitter  feelings  occasioned  by  the  quarrel,  but  to  try  to  do  their 

duty  and  to  become  good  citizens. 

General  Grant,  whose  delicacy  in  his  treatment  of  General 
Lee  is  praised  even  by  Southern  writers,  did  not  wait  to  wit- 
ness the  surrender  and  paroling  of  the  army,  but  left  General 
Meade  to  attend  to  the  necessary  duties,  and  returned  to  City 
Point  on  the  11th  of  April.  On  the  next  day  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia  had  its  last  parade.  The  troops  marched  to 
a  place  near  Appomattox  Court-House,  where  they  "stacked 
their  arms  and  piled  up  their  accoutrements.  Only  about  eight 
thousand  men  had  muskets,  but  more  than  eighteen  thousand 
others,  who  had  lost  their  weapons  in  the  retreat,  took  part  in 
the  surrender.  The  men  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  treated 
their  vanquished  brethren  with  the  modesty  of  true  soldiers, 
doing  all  in  their   power  to  make  them  comfortable.     They 


540 


SURRENDER  OF  LEE. 


[1865. 


shared  with  them  their  own  rations  until  food  enough  could  be 
drawn  from  the  trains  for  the  needs  of  both,  and  they  who  had 
lately  been  the  bitterest  of  enemies  lay  down  together  like  the 
best  of  friends.  In  a  few  days  most  of  the  Union  army  re- 
turned to  Petersburg  and  Kichniond,  and  the  Confederates 
went  back  to  their  homes  to  begin  life  over  again  and  to  build 
up  anew  what  had  been  sacrificed  in  the  great  civil  war. 

The  news  of  Lee's  surrender  was  received  with  the  greatest 
joy  throughout  the  loyal  States,  for  it  was  looked  upon  every- 
where as  the  end  of  the  war.  Peace,  so  long  wished  for,  had 
%ome  at  last.  Secretary  Stanton  telegraphed  an  order  to  the 
headquarters  of  all  the  armies  and  to  every  fort  and  arsenal  of 
the  United  States  to  fire  a  salute  of  two  hundred  guns  in  honor 
of  the  event;  and  to  Grant  the  following:  "Thanks  be  to 
Almighty  God  for  the  great  victory  with  which  He  has  this 
day  crowned  you  and  the  gallant  armies  under  your  command! 
The  thanks  of  this  Department  and  of  the  Government  and  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States — their  reverence  and  honor  have 
been  deserved — will  be  rendered  to  you  and  the  brave  and  gal- 
lant officers  and  soldiers  of  your  army  for  all  time." 


Cavalry  Fight. 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 
DEATH    OF    LINCOLN. 

President  Lincoln  in  Richmond.— His  Last  Speech.— Threats  op  Assassination.— Grant 
in  Washington.  — Robert  Lincoln.  —  Lee's  Surrender.  —  At  the  Theatre. —John 
Wilkes  Booth.— The  Fatal  Shot.— Sic  Semper  Tyrannis  !— The  Assassin's  Escape.— 
Death  of  Lincoln.— Powell  Attacks  Secretary  Seward. — Reward  for  Jefferson 
Davis.— Death  of  Booth.  —  Universal  Sorrow. —With  Malice  toward  None. — 
Funeral  Honors.— At  Rest.— President  Johnson. 

ME.  LINCOLN  had  been  with  Grant  at  City  Point  for 
several  days  before  the  surrender  of  Lee.  The  day  after 
the  evacuation  of  Richmond  he  went  up  to  the  city  with 
Admiral  Porter,  and  after  a  short  rest  at  General  Weitzel's 
quarters,  the  former  residence  of  President  Davis,  rode  in  an 
open  carriage  through  the  principal  parts  of  the  city.  He 
returned  to  City  Point  at  night,  but  two  days  afterward 
(April  6)  went  to  Richmond  again,  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Lin- 
coln, Vice-President  Johnson,  and  other  prominent  people, 
and  he  did  not  return  to  Washington  until  the  9th  of  April, 
the  day  of  Lee's  surrender.  On  the  night  of  the  11th  the 
grounds  of  the  White  House  were  brilliantly  lighted  and  a 
brass  band  was  playing  national  airs.  When  the  great  crowd 
which  had  assembled  there  called  loudly  for  him  he  came  out 
and  made  a  short  speech,  in  which  he  showed  that,  while  he 
gave  due  honor  and  praise  to  the  gallant  men  who  had  brought 
the  war  to  a  triumphal  end,  he  had  no  bitterness  of  feeling  for 
those  who  had  struggled  so  long  in  what  he  believed  to  be  a 
wrong  cause.  This  was  his  last  speech  in  public.  Three  days 
afterward  he  fell  by  the  hand  of  the  assassin. 

President  Lincoln  had  been  several  times  threatened  with 
assassination,  but  being  by  nature  fearless  he  had  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  the  wishes  of  his  friends  that  he  would  take  precautions 
against  danger  of  that  kind.  Many  thought  that  his  visit  to 
Richmond  so  soon  after  the  evacuation,  when  the  passions  of 
men  were  still  inflamed,  was  a  foolish  exposure  of  his  person; 
but  he  could  not  be  led  to  believe  that  the  President  of  a  free 
people  was  not  safe  everywhere.  As  he  felt  kindly  toward  every 
one,  he  was  loth  to  think  that  any,  even  of  those  who  had 


542  DEATH  OF  LINCOLN.  [1865. 

called  themselves  his  enemies,  could  entertain  different  feelings 
toward  himself. 

General  Grant  arrived  in  Washington  in  the  morning  of 
Friday,  April  14,  early  enough  for  Captain  Eobert  Lincoln,  the 
President's  son,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Lieutenant-General's 
staff,  to  breakfast  Avith  his  father.  As  Captain  Lincoln  had 
been  present  at  the  surrender  of  Lee,  we  may  imagine  that  he 
gave  his  father  a  full  account  of  all  that  took  place,  and  that 
the  President  had  many  questions  to  ask  about  that  most  event- 
ful scene  in  our  history.  During  the  morning  Mr.  Lincoln 
attended  a  meeting  of  the  Cabinet,  at  which  General  Grant  was 
present.  After  the  meeting  he  invited  the  General  to  attend 
Ford's  Theatre  with  him  in  the  evening  to  see  the  play  of 
"  Our  American  Cousin."  It  was  announced  in  the  news- 
papers in  the  afternoon  that  the  President  and  Lieutenant- 
General  would  attend  the  theatre,  but  General  Grant  was  called 
to  New  York  that  evening,  and  so  escaped,  perhaps,  a  similar 
fate  to  that  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

At  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  the  President,  accompanied 
by  his  wife,  another  lady,  and  Major  H.  P.  Rathbone,  took  their 
seats  in  the  box  in  the  theatre  which  had  been  prepared  for  the 
party,  the  front  being  festooned  with  flags.  A  few  minutes 
past  ten  o'clock,  when  all  were  intently  watching  the  play,  an 
actor  named  John  Wilkes  Booth,  son  of  the  famous  English 
tragedian  Junius  Booth,  entered  the  President's  box,  and, 
stealing  up  behind  Mr.  Lincoln,  put  a  pistol  to  the  back  of  his 
head  and  fired.  The  sound  of  the  shot  rang  through  the  house 
and  startled  every  one.  Major  Rathbone  sprang  to  his  feet  and 
tried  to  seize  the  assassin,  whom  he  saw  indistinctly  through 
the  smoke  which  nearly  filled  the  box.  Booth  struck  him  in 
the  left  arm  with  a  dagger,  and  rushing  to  the  front  shouted, 
"Sic  semper  tyrannis!"*  and  leaped  over  the  railing  upon  the 
stage.  As  he  did  so  one  of  his  spurs  caught  in  the  flag  in  front 
of  the  box,  causing  him  to  fall  and  sprain  his  ankle  badly;  but 
he  quickly  sprang  to  his  feet,  and  brandishing  his  dagger 
again,  shouted,  "The  South  is  avenged!"  In  the  confusion  he 
escaped  through  the  back  of  the  stage,  mounted  a  horse  which 

"Latin  for  "So  be  it  always  with  tyrants,"  the  motto  of  the  State  of 
Virginia. 


1865.]  THE  FATAL  SHOT.  543 

was  awaiting  him  in  a  back  street,  and  rode  safely  out  of 
the  city. 

President  Lincoln  probably  never  knew  what  had  hap- 
pened. The  ball  passed  through  his  brain;  his  head  fell  for- 
ward, his  eyes  closed,  and  he  uttered  no  sound.  He  was 
carried  from  the  theatre  to  a  house  across  the  street  and  laid 
upon  a  bed,  where  he  died  the  next  morning,  surrounded  by 
the  officers  of  the  Government  and  many  other  prominent 
persons. 

At  the  same  time  when  Booth  entered  the  theatre,  another 
person  named  Lewis  Payne  Powell  made  his  way  into  the  house 
of  Secretary  Seward,  who  was  confined  to  his  bed  from  injuries 
received  by  being  thrown  from  his  carriage,  and  tried  to  kill 
him  with  a  bowie-knife.  He  gave  him  three  stabs,  none  of 
which  were  fatal,  and  succeeded  in  escaping.  Attempts  to 
assassinate  other  Cabinet  ministers  also  met  with  failure.  In 
the  excitement  of  the  moment  it  was  believed  that  the  Con- 
federate Government  was  concerned  in  the  murder  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  President  Johnson  issued  a  proclamation  offering 
a  reward  of  $100,000  for  the  arrest  of  Jefferson  Davis,  and 
smaller  sums  for  other  Confederates  supposed  to  have  been 
engaged  in  the  plot.  But  when  the  facts  became  known  it  was 
made  clear  that  it  was  the  work  of  ouly  a  few  desperate  per- 
sons, and  that  neither  Mr.  Davis  nor  any  of  those  charged 
with  the  crime  in  the  proclamation  knew  anything  about  it. 
Booth  was  soon  after  shot  in  a  barn  in  Virginia  by  his  pur- 
suers, who  tracked  him  thither.  Payne  also  was  arrested  and 
hung  with  three  other  persons  engaged  in  the  plot,  and  several 
more  were  imprisoned. 

The  death  of  President  Lincoln  was  the  cause  of  almost 
universal  sorrow.  His  course  throughout  the  war  had  won  him 
the  love  of  the  people,  and  even  his  enemies,  if  he  could  be  said 
to  have  any,  had  learned  to  respect  his  honesty  and  his  evi- 
dently sincere  desire  to  do  what  he  believed  to  be  for  the  good 
of  the  whole  country.  He  had  earnestly  looked  forward  to 
the  time  when  the  civil  strife  should  cease  and  the  disbanded 
armies  should  again  take  their  places  in  the  field  and  the 
workshop,  and  it  is  believed  by  those  who  knew  him  best  that 
it  was  his  intention  to  extend  a  kindly  hand  to  those  who  had 
borne  arms  against  the  Government,  and  to  welcome   them 


544 


DEATH  OF  LINCOLN. 


[1865. 


back  as  erring  brethren.  His  loving  heart  is  best  shown  in  the 
closing  sentence  of  his  last  inaugural  address,  written  only  a 
few  weeks  before  his  death:  "  With  malice  toward  none,  with 
charity  for  all — with  firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to 
see  the  right,  let  us  strive  to  finish  the  work  we  are  engaged  in; 
to  bind  up  the  wounds  of  our  nation;  to  care  for  him  who  has 
borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow  and  orphan;  and  to  do  all 
which  may  achieve  a  just  and  a  lasting  peace  among  ourselves, 
and  between  us  and  all  other  nations." 

President  Lincoln's  body  was  embalmed,  and  after  funeral 
services  in  "Washington  was  borne  in  solemn  procession,  over  the 
same  route  which  he  had  travelled  when  he  went  to  Washing- 
ton to  become  President,  to  his  home  in  Springfield,  Illinois. 
It  lay  in  state  in  most  of  the  large  cities  through  which  the 
funeral  train  passed,  and  at  every  village  and  station  on  the 
long  route  great  crowds  gathered  with  tokens  of  love  and  grief. 
The  dead  President  was  at  last  laid  to  rest  in  Oak  Eidge  Ceme- 
tery, near  Springfield,  where  a 'splendid  monument,  crowned 
with  his  statue,  has  since  (1874)  been  erected  to  his  memory. 

Though  the  head  of  the  nation  was  thus  stricken  down,  it 
was  followed  by  no  confusion  such  as  is  sometimes  seen  in 
monarchical  governments,  where  the  succession  is  frequently  a 
cause  of  dispute.  Six  hours  after  the  President's  death  the 
oath  of  office  was  taken  by  the  Vice-President  before  Chief- 
Justice  Chase,  and  Andrew  Johnson  became  President  of  the 
United  States. 


CHAPTER  XLV. 
JOHNSTON.— DAVIS. 

Sherman  Marches  against  Johnston.— Joy  at  Lee's  Surrender.— Johnston's  Letter.— 
An  Important  Message.— Bad  News.— Meeting  with  Johnston.— Second  Interview.— 
Breckinridge  —The  Terms  Rejected.— Grant  in  Raleigh.— Surrender  of  John- 
ston.—Stanton's  Insults.— Halleck  and  Sherman.— Surrender  op  Kirby  Smith.— 
President  Davis's  Flight.— Danville.— Pleasing  Dreams.— A  Last  Proclamation.— 
Lee  Anxiously  Looked  For.— Hope  Crushed.— Davis,  Johnston,  and  Beauregard.— 
Charlotte.— Reports  of  Treasure.— Scramble  for  Money.— Cavalry  on  the  Trail.— 
Confederate  Plunderers.— Irwinsville.— The  Camp  Surprised.— Fatal  Mistake.— 
Ha  !  Federals  !— The  Story  of  the  Disguise.— The  Capture.— Fortress  Monroe.— 
Pardon. 

WE  left  General  Sherman  at  Goldsboro  ready  to  move 
northward  on  the  10th  of  April.  According  to  the 
plan  settled  upon  in  the  conference  at  City  Point,  Sherman 
was  to  place  his  army  north  of  the  Roanoke  River  and  in  com- 
munication with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  at  Petersburg. 
But  in  the  midst  of  preparations  for  this  move  news  came 
(April  6)  of  the  fall  of  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  and  of  Lee's 
retreat  toward  Danville.  General  Sherman  then  changed  his 
plan,  and  instead  of  marching  to  cross  the  Roanoke,  moved 
directly  against  Johnston's  army,  which  was  then  at  Smith- 
field,  on  the  road  to  Raleigh.  Johnston  did  not  await  his 
coming,  but  moved  toward  Raleigh.  On  the  night  of  the  11th 
official  news  was  received  from  Grant  of  the  surrender  of  Lee 
at  Appomattox.  This  caused  great  joy  in  Sherman's  army,  for 
all  felt  that  the  war  was  ended.  Two  days  afterward  General 
Sherman  entered  Ralergh,  where  he  received  (April  14)  a  letter 
from  General  Johnston,  asking  for  a  short  suspension  of  hos- 
tilities, with  the  object  of  making  peace.  Sherman  replied, 
offering  the  same  terms  given  by  Grant  to  Lee.  Johnston 
wrote  again  agreeing  to  meet  Sherman  near  Durham's  Station 
in  the  morning  of  April  17th.  Sherman  was  about  leaving  the 
railway  station  at  Raleigh  in  a  car  when  the  telegraph  operator 
ran  to  him  and  asked  him  to  wait  a  few  minutes,  as  he  was 
just  then  receiving  a  most  important  message  in  cipher.*     In 

*  Important  messages  and  despatches  during  the  war  were  generally 
sent  in  cipher;  that  is,  in  concealed  or  secret  characters,  so  that  every- 
body would  not  understand  them. 


546 


JOHNSTON.— DAVIS. 


11865. 


about  half  an  hour  the  operator  came  back  with  the  message 
written  in  full  and  translated.  It  told  of  the  assassination  of 
President  Lincoln,  the  attempt  to  murder  Secretary  Seward, 
and  of  the  suspicion  that  the  intention  was  to  kill  General 
Grant  and  the  other  principal  officers  of  the  Government. 

General  Sherman  was  greatly  shocked  at  the  news,  but  he 
was  too  familiar  with  deeds  of  blood  to  show  his  feelings.  He 
asked  the  operator  if  any  one  besides  himself  had  seen  tbe 
despatch,  and  on  his  answering  no,  he  bade  him  to  keep  the 
news  secret  until  his  return.  He  put  the  despatch  into  his 
pocket,  and*  without  informing  any  one  of  the  dreadful  news 
went  to  meet  General  Johnston.  On  reaching  Durham's  Sta- 
tion he  rode  with  his  at- 
tendants about  five  miles 
toward  Hillsboro,  and 
had  a  meeting  with  John- 
ston in  a  small  farm- 
house by  the  wayside. 
The  farmer,  a  Mr.  Ben- 
nett, and  his  wife  with- 
drew into  a  log-house 
near  by,  and  while  their 
officers  waited  outside 
the  two  generals  entered 
together.  As  soon  as 
they  were  alone  General 
Sherman  handed  Gen- 
eral Johnston  the  de- 
spatch telling  of  President  Lincoln's  death,  and  watched  him 
closely  as  he  read  it.  "  The  perspiration,"  says  Sherman, 
"came  out  in  large  drops  on  his  forehead,  and  he  did  not 
attempt  to  conceal  his  distress."  General  Sherman  told  him 
that  he  had  kept  the  news  even  from  his  staff  officers,  and  that 
he  dreaded  the  effect  of  it  when  it  should  become  known  to 
his  army  in  Raleigh;  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  greatly  loved 
by  the  soldiers,  and  if  anything  should  madden  them  they 
might  destroy  the  city. 

After  a  long  consultation  General  Johnston  agreed  to  see 
Mr.  Davis  in  order  to  get  authority  from  him  to  disband  all 
the  armies  of  the  Confederacy,  and  to  meet  General  Sherman 


Oliver  O.  Howard. 


SEEEMAN  MEETS  J0EN8T0N. 


547 


again  the  next  day.  On  his  return  to  Kaleigh  General  Sher- 
man issued  an  order  to  the  army  informing  them  of  the  assassi- 
nation of  the  President.  Although  the  feeling  among  the 
soldiers  was  very  intense,  for  many  then  believed  that  it  was 
the  result  of  a  deep-laid  plot,  all  behaved  well  and  no  revenge- 
ful acts  were  committed. 

At  the  next  meeting  (April  18)  between  the  two  generals  in 
the  little  house,  John  0.  Breckinridge,  the  Confederate  Secre- 
tary of  War,  was  present.  Johnston  had  not  been  able  to  find 
President  Davis,  but  he  said  that  Breckinridge's  orders  would 
be  obeyed  by  all  the  Confederate  armies,  both  in  the  States 
under  his  command — North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
and  Florida — and  in  all 
the  other  States  where 
Confederates  were  still 
in  arms.  Johnston  was 
anxious  about  the  future 
of  those  who  had  fought 
in  the  Southern  armies, 
and  wanted  some  guar- 
anty that  they  should 
not  be  deprived  of  their 
civil  and  political  rights. 
Sherman  told  him  that 
he  had  no  right  to  settle 
such  questions,  and  after 
a  long  talk  he  concluded 
that  it  was  best  to  send 
to  Washington  for  instructions.  So  he  wrote  out  the  terms  as 
they  had  been  discussed,  and  the  paper  was  signed  by  both 
generals,  each  agreeing  to  keep  his  army  as  it  was  until  an 
answer  came. 

At  that  time  Washington  was  in  great  excitement  on  ac- 
count of  President  Lincoln's  death  and  the  attempted  assassi- 
nation of  the  Cabinet  officers.  Many  believed  that  there  was 
evidence  that  the  Confederate  officials  had  known  of  the  plot, 
and  there  was  a  strong  feeling  that  General  Grant  had  been  too 
generous  to  General  Lee  in  the  terms  of  surrender.  The  much 
more  liberal  terms  asked  by  General  Johnston  were  rejected  by 
President  Johnson  and  the  Cabinet,  and  General  Grant  was 


Henry  W.  Slocitm. 


548 


JOHNSTON— DA  VIS. 


[1865. 


instructed  to  go  to  General  Sherman's  headquarters  and  "direct 
operations  against  the  enemy."  General  Grant  went  to  Raleigh, 
but  did  not  interfere  with  Sherman,  whom  he  greatly  respected; 
and  on  the  26th  of  April  General  Sherman  had  another  meet- 
ing with  General  Johnston,  when  the  latter  agreed  to  surrender 
his  army  on  the  same  terms  granted  to  General  Lee. 

General  Sherman,  who  had  acted,  as  he  believed,  for  the 
best  interests  of  his  country,  thought  that  the  matter  was  then 
ended;  but  in  a  few  days  he  received  a  New  York  newspaper 
containing  an  article,  signed  by  Secretary  Stanton,  reflecting 
severely  on  his  conduct,  and  even  insinuating  that  he  was 


£§S£6 


Place  of  Johnston's  Surrender. 

willing  to  be  bribed  to  permit  Mr.  Davis  to  escape.  This  was 
done  by  Mr.  Stanton  without  the  knowledge  of  the  President 
or  of  any  other  member  of  his  Cabinet. 

But  worse  was  still  to  come.  General  Halleck,  who  had 
been  sent  to  Richmond  to  take  command  in  Virginia  after  the 
surrender  of  Lee,  ordered  Generals  Meade,  Sheridan,  and 
Wright  to  advance  into  General  Sherman's  Department  of 
North  Carolina  to  cut  off  Johnston's  retreat,  and  to  pay  no 
regard  to'  any  orders  from  General  Sherman.  He  suggested, 
too,  that  Generals  Thomas  and  Wilson,  Sherman's  own  gene- 
rals, be  instructed  not  to  obey  him,  and  Secretary  Stanton 
despatched  such  orders  to  them.     If  General  Sherman  had 


1865.]  DAVIS  AT  DANVILLE.  549 

been  an  open  traitor  to  his  country  lie  conld  scarcely  haye  been 
treated  with  more  indignity,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  he 
felt  the  insult  keenly,  and  that  he  took  an  early  opportunity  to 
resent  it.  Fortunately  for  General  Sherman  the  war  was  at  an 
end,  or  he  too  might  have  met  the  fate  of  McClellan  and  many 
other  good  generals  whom  the  Washington  politicians  could 
not  mould  to  suit  their  private  purposes. 

The  surrender  of  General  Johnston,  whose  army  consisted 
of  about  thirty-seven  thousand  men,  was  followed  by  that  of 
nearly  fifty-three  thousand  more  Confederates  at  other  placets 
in  General  Johnston's  department;  and  on  the  26th  of  May 
General  Kirby  Smith  surrendered  to  General  Canby  all  the 
troops  west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  Thus  ended  the  armies 
of  the  Confederacy;  but  we  have  yet  to  see  what  became  of 
President  Davis  and  the  officers  of  his  government  after  the 
flight  from  Richmond. 

After  leaving  the  church  that  pleasant  Sunday  morning 
(page  524),  Mr.  Davis  hastened  home  and  made  arrangements 
for  departure,  as  advised  by  General  Lee.  About  ten  o'clock 
that  night,  accompanied  by  the  members  of  his  cabinet  and 
other  officials,  and  with  a  guard  of  two  hundred  men,  he  took 
the  railway  train  for  Danville,  where  he  set  up  his  government 
the  next  morning.  To  leave  his  capital  under  such  circum- 
stances was  gloomy  enough,  but  he  did  not  give  up  all  hope, 
for  it  seemed  to  him  that  if  Lee  should  succeed  in  joining 
Johnston  Richmond  might  be  regained;  and  even  if  that  were 
not  accomplished  at  once,  he  believed  that  the  war  could  be 
prolonged  until  independence  and  honorable  terms  could  be 
wrested  from  the  United  States.  With  such  pleasing  dreams 
of  the  future  he  issued  (April  5)  a  spirited  proclamation, 
which  he  hoped  would  stir  up  the  Confederates  to  continue 
the  war  at  all  hazards.  In  it  he  told  them  that  they  had 
entered  upon  a  new  phase  in  the  struggle,  and  that,  relieved 
from  the  necessity  of  guarding  particular  points,  they  were  free 
to  move  from  place  to  place  and  strike  the  enemy  far  from  his 
base.  He  announced  that  it  was  his  purpose  to  maintain  the 
contest  with  his  whole  heart  and  soul,  and  promised  that  he 
would  never  consent  to  abandon  to  the  enemy  one  foot  of  the 
soil  of  any  one  of  the  States  of  the  Confederacy.  "  Let  us, 
then,  not  despond,  my  countrymen,"  he  said  in  conclusion; 


550  JOHNSTON.— DAVIS.  1865.] 

"but,  relying  on  God,  meet  the  foe  with  fresh  defiance  and 
with  unconquered  and  unconquerable  hearts." 

The  coming  of  Lee  was  anxiously  awaited  for  several  days, 
but  no  tidings  were  received,  and  fears  began  to  be  whisjDered 
around  that  all  was  not  right.  At  last  (April  10)  came  the 
astounding  news  of  the  surrender  at  Appomattox.  Danville 
was  no  longer  safe,  and  it  was  determined  to  seek  shelter  with 
Johnston's  army.  The  party  went  by  railroad  to  Greensboro 
in  North  Carolina,  where  the  citizens  received  them  with  so 
little  cordiality  that  most  of  them  had  to  live  in  the  cars  during 
the  few  days  spent  there.  Mr.  Davis  had  an  interview  in 
Greensboro  with  Generals  Johnston  and  Beauregard,  with  both 
of  whom  he  had  been  on  bad  terms.  He  told  them  that  in  two 
or  three  weeks  he  would  have  a  large  army  in  the  field;  but 
General  Johnston  urged  that  the  time  for  ending  the  war 
had  come,  and  that  it  would  be  the  greatest  of  human  crimes 
to  attempt  to  continue  it.  Mr.  Davis  would  not  at  first  listen 
to  this,  but  finally  consented  that  General  Johnston  should  ask 
for  an  armistice  to  discuss  the  question  of  peace.  He  did  not 
await  the  surrender  of  Johnston's  army,  but  took  to  flight 
again,  the  party  this  time  on  horseback  and  in  carriages,  for 
the  railway  had  been  destroyed  by  Stoneman's  cavalry.  At 
Charlotte  the  fugitives  were  more  kindly  received  than  at 
Greensboro,  but  after  a  few  days'  tarry  rumors  of  the  coming  of 
Stoneman  again  put  them  to  flight.  News  of  Johnston's  sur- 
render received  there  showed  Mr.  Davis  that  the  end  of  the  Con- 
federacy was  at  hand,  and  he  saw  that  his  only  hope  was  to  get 
across  the  Mississippi,  where  Kirby  Smith  still  had  an  army,  or 
to  reach  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  escape  by  sea. 
Rumors  of  Union  cavalry  west  of  them  caused  the  party  to  go 
southward.  An  escort  of  about  two  thousand  cavalry  accom- 
panied them,  but  its  number  gradually  grew  smaller  and 
smaller  until,  when  Washington,  Georgia,  was  reached  only  a 
small  guard  remained.  The  members  of  the  Cabinet,  too,  had 
dropped  off  one  by  one,  and  Mr.  Davis  was  left  with  but 
a  few  followers  besides  the  soldiers.  It  had  been  re]:>orted 
that  he  had  a  large  amount  of  gold  with  him,  estimated  by 
some  as  high  as  thirteen  million  dollars  (113,000,000).  This 
aroused  the  cupidity  of  the  escort,  and  they  demanded  to  be 
paid  for  their  services  before  going  further.     Mr.  Davis  had 


1865.]  SEARCHING  FOR  DAVIS.  051 

really  but  little  money,  but  the  soldiers  became  so  clamorous 
that  a  few  dollars  were  paid  to  each.  As  soon  as  they  found 
out  where  the  money  was  there  was  a  disgraceful  scramble  for 
it.  Some  got  too  much  and  some  got  nothing,  and  part  of  the 
specie  was  trampled  into  the  dirt,  where  persons  searched  and 
found  many  pieces  the  next  day. 

At  that  time  it  was  well  known  that  a  reward  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  had  been  offered  by  the  Government  for 
the  arrest  of  Mr.  Davis,  and  many  parties  of  United  States 
cavalry  were  on  the  lookout  for  him.  But  though  fallen  from 
power  and  a  fugitive,  he  felt  confident  that  none  of  the  white 
people  in  the  country  through  which  he  was  travelling  would 
betray  him.  There  were  some  fears,  however,  that  wandering 
parties  of  Confederate  soldiers,  attracted  by  the  stories  of  the 
large  amount  of  treasure  he  was  said  to  have  with  him,  might 
attack  his  party.  For  the  sake  of  greater  safety,  Mr.  Davis 
travelled  by  one  road  on  horseback,  while  Mrs.  Davis  and  the 
other  members  of  his  family  went  by  another  in  wagons.  When 
near  Irwinsville,  Georgia,  Mr.  Davis  heard  that  some  soldiers, 
thinking  that  the  treasure  was  in  the  wagons  with  Mrs.  Davis, 
had  made  a  plot  to  seize  them.  Fearful  that  they  might  be  in 
danger,  he  rode  eighteen  miles  across  the  country  to  protect 
them.  He  found  them  in  tents  pitched  by  the  roadside,  and 
wearied  with  his  journey  concluded  to  spend  the  night  with 
them,  intending  to  leave  before  daylight  and  continue  his 
journey  separately,  as  before. 

In  the  mean  time  parties  of  cavalry,  sent  out  from  Macon 
by  General  Wilson,  had  been  looking  for  the  fugitives  in  every 
direction.  One  night  a  negro  went  into  the  camp  of  one  of 
these  parties  and  told  the  commander,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Hardin,  of  the  First  Wisconsin  Cavalry,  that  Mr.  Davis  and 
his  family  had  passed  along  the  road  that  day.  He  knew  them 
because  he  had  heard  one  of  the  gentlemen,  who  was  mounted 
on  a  fine  bay  horse,  called  President  Davis.  Colonel  Hardin 
pursued  and  soon  found  the  trail  of  the  fugitives.  The  way 
led  through  barren  pine  forests  and  cypress  swamps.  Eain 
soon  fell  and  washed  out  the  tracks  of  the  wagons,  so  that  the 
trail  was  lost;  but  after  some  delay  it  was  found  again  and  the 
party  rode  on.  More  than  forty  miles  were  passed  over  that 
day,  and  at  night  the  weary  soldiers  camped  in  the  rain  on  the 


552  JOHNSTON.— DA  VIS  [1865. 

edge  of  a  swamp.  All  were  in  the  saddle  by  daylight  and 
again  in  pursuit.  In  the  afternoon  the  troopers  fell  in  with 
another  party,  commanded  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Pritchard,  of 
the  Fourth  Michigan  Cavalry.  Colonel  Hardin  gave  him  what 
information  he  had,  and  the  two  companies  pushed  on,  by  dif- 
ferent roads,  after  the  fugitives.  Both  approached  the  camp 
toward  dawn  of  the  next  morning  (May  11).  In  their  haste 
they  took  each  other  for  enemies,  and  several  shots  were  fired 
by  which  two  men  were  killed  and  several  wounded. 

On  hearing  the  firing  Mr.  Davis,  supposing  the  attack  to  be 
made  by  the  Confederate  plunderers  whom  he  had  feared,  put 
on  his  boots  and  prepared  to  go  out  of  the  tent,  saying  to  his 
wife : 

"  They  will,  at  least  as  yet,  respect  me." 

As  he  got  to  the  tent  door  thus  hastily  equipped,  he  saw 
some  Union  cavalry  ride  up  the  road  and  stop  in  front. 

"Ha  !  Federals  !"  he  exclaimed. 

"  Then  you  are  captured  !"  cried  Mrs.  Davis,  with  emotion. 

In  a  moment  she  caught  an  idea — a  woman's  idea.  He 
slept  in  a  wrapper,  a  loose  one.  It  was  yet  around  him.  This 
she  fastened,  ere  he  was  aware  of  it,  and  then,  bidding  him 
adieu,  urged  him  to  go  to  the  spring,  a  short  distance  off,  where 
his  horses  and  arms  were.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  there  was 
not  even  a  pistol  in  the  tent.  Davis  felt  that  his  only  course 
was  to  reach  his  horse  and  arms,  and  complied.  As  he  was 
leaving  the  door,  followed  by  a  servant  with  a  water-bucket, 
Miss  Howell  flung  a  shawl  over  his  head.  But  this  thin  dis- 
guise did  not  deceive  the  cavalry-men,  who  took  him  and  all 
his  party  prisoners. 

This  is  the  story  as  told  by  Lieutenant  Stuart,  of  Mr. 
Davis's  staff.  Mr.  Davis  himself  says  that  his  family,  whom 
he  had  not  seen  since  leaving  Richmond,  were  travelling  by  a 
road  east  of  the  one  he  was  pursuing;  that  he  joined  them  on 
the  second  or  third  day  after  leaving  AVashington,  Georgia,  and 
after  travelling  with  them  two  or  three  days  for  their  protection 
against  stragglers,  was  about  to  leave  them  early  one  morning. 
He  had  slept  with  his  clothes  on,  and  was  therefore  dressed 
when  the  soldiers  surrounded  the  camp.  On  going  out  he  put 
on  his  raglan,  and  his  wife  threw  a  shawl  over  his  shoulders. 
He  hoped  thus  to  be  able  to  reach  his  horse,  which  was  saddled 


1865.]  CAPTURE  OF  DAVIS.  553 

and  bridled  near  the  spring.  Various  additions  were  made  to 
the  story  at  the  time,  and  an  effort  was  made  in  many  news- 
papers to  cast  ridicule  on  the  ex-President  of  the  Confederacy 
by  the  assertion  that  he  was  dressed  in  his  wife's  clothes  when 
taken.  The  vast  amount  of  treasure  which  he  was  reported  to 
be  carrying  with  him  turned  out  to  be  only  about  ten  thousand 
dollars  in  gold  and  silver  coin.  It  is  still  kept  in  the  vaults  of 
the  Treasury  Department  at  Washington,  where  it  may  be  seen 
by  the  curious. 

Mr.  Davis  was  taken  to  General  "Wilson  at  Macon,  and  was 
sent  from  there  to  Fortress  Monroe,  where  he  was  confined  for 
two  years.  The  charge  that  he  was  engaged  in  the  plot  to 
murder  Mr.  Lincoln  was  given  up,  because  there  was  no  evi- 
dence against  him.  In  May,  1867,  he  was  brought  before  the 
United  States  Court  in  Richmond  on  a  charge  of  treason,  but 
he  was  never  tried,  and  in  December  of  the  next  year  (1868)  he 
was  pardoned  with  many  others. 


Artillery. 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 
PEACE. 

Grave  Fears.— The  Soldiers  Welcome  Peace.— Drafting  Stopped.— Disbanding  thm 
Armies— Stanton.— Welles.— The  Last  Review.— Grand  Reception  in. Washington. 
—The  Soldiers  at  Home.— Honors  to  the  Dead.— Confederate  Armies.— Summary 
of  Losses.— The  Cost  of  the  War.— Political  Questions.— Causes  and  Results  of 
the  War.— The  Union  Perpetual. 

THE  surrender  of  the  Confederate  armies  ended  the  great 
civil  war  and  brought  peace  once  more,  but  there  were 
still  many  things  to  be  done  and  many  questions  to  be  settled 
before  the  country  could  become  quiet  and  prosperous  again. 
Grave  fears  were  felt  by  many  that  the  soldiers,  so  long 
accustomed  to  an  adventurous  life,  would  not  willingly  return 
to  the  every-day  work  of  the  farm  and  the  shop.  Foreign 
writers,  not  understanding  our  people,  predicted  that  the  great 
armies  which  the  Union  had  called  to  its  defence  would  prove 
its  ruin  and,  like  the  Praetorian  Guards  of  ancient  Rome,  take 
the  government  into  their  own  hands  and  build  up  a  military 
despotism.  But  these  fears  were  not  justified:  the  men  who 
had  fought  were  as  glad  to  welcome  peace  as  those  who  had 
taken  no  active  part  in  the  war,  and  rejoiced  when  the  time 
came  to  lay  aside  their  weapons  for  the  peaceful  implements  of 
industry. 

A  few  clays  after  Lee's  surrender,  orders  were  given  to  stop 
all  drafting  and  recruiting,  and  in  the  next  month  was  begun 
the  work  of  mustering  out  and  sending  to  their  homes  the 
soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  Union  armies  and  fleets.  Nearly 
three  million  men  were  called,  at  different  times,  into  the 
service  during  the  war;  but  as  many  of  these  were  enlisted  for 
only  three,  six,  or  nine  months,  and  afterward  joined  the  army 
again,  it  is  thought  that  only  about  one  million  five  hundred 
thousand  different  men  took  part  on  the  Union  side.  Of  these 
nearly  three  hundred  thousand  lost  their  lives  from  wounds  or 
sickness.  More  than  a  million  men  were  on  the  rolls  at  the 
close  of  the  war,  and  before  the  end  of  the  following  autumn 
nearly  nine  hundred  thousand  of  these  had  been  paid  and  sent 
home. 


1865.]  GRAND  REVIEW.  555 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  form  any  correct  idea  of  the  vast 
amount  of  labor  required  in  disbanding  so  great  a  force.  Not 
only  had  accurate  accounts  to  be  kept  of  all  the  men  discharged 
and  of  the  amounts  paid  to  them,  but  also  of  their  arms  and 
equipments,  which  had  to  be  carefully  stored.  The  horses, 
mules,  wagons,  and  stores  remaining  on  hand,  the  steamboats 
and  other  vessels,  and  the  railway  cars  used  for  transporting 
troops,  the  military  railroads  and  telegraphs  built  during  the 
war,  the  barracks,  hospitals,  and  other  buildings  belonging  to 
the  Government,  and  all  other  property  no  longer  needed,  had 
to  be  sold  and  accounted  for.  All  this  labor  was  done  under 
the  orders  of  Secretary  Stanton,  to  whose  ability  and  faithful- 
ness in  the  management  of  the  War  Department  was  largely 
due  the  success  of  the  Union  in  the  great  struggle.  Through 
his  admirable  management,  aided  by  the  business  skill  of  the 
Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  Charles  A.  Dana,  all  the  great 
armies  in  the  field  were  clothed,  fed,  armed,  and  kept  supplied 
with  every  necessity.  Secretary  Stanton  had  many  failings  and 
made  numerous  enemies,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  a  wiser  selection 
could  have  been  made  at  the  time  to  fill  the  place  which  he 
occupied  so  ably.  To  Secretary  Welles  of  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment and  to  the  Assistant  Secretary,  G.  V.  Fox,  are  due  equal 
honor  for  their  able  management  of  the  navy,  which  may  be 
said  to  have  been  created  by  them. 

Before  the  troops  were  sent  home,  the  combined  armies  of 
Grant  and  of  Sherman  had  a  grand  reception  in  Washington. 
More  than  two  hundred  thousand  men,  the  bronzed  veterans 
of  the  armies  of  the  Potomac,  of  the  Tennessee,  of  the  Ohio, 
and  of  Georgia,  marched  through  the  streets  in  review  before 
the  President  and  his  Cabinet  and  the  chief  officers  of  the  army 
and  navy.  Two  days  (May  23  and  24)  were  occupied  in  the 
triumphal  procession,  the  first  day  being  given  to  the  army  of 
General  Meade,  the  second  to  that  of  General  Sherman.  The 
houses  were  decorated  with  flags  and  mottoes  of  welcome,  and 
the  sidewalks  were  filled  with  thousands  of  people  in  holiday 
dress  bearing  wreaths  and  bouquets  of  flowers  to  bestow  upon 
their  favorites.  As  the  troops  marched  in  close  columns  around 
the  Capitol  and  down  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  filling  the  wide 
street  almost  from  curb  to  curb,  the  scene  was  magnificent. 
The  splendid  music  of  the  bands,  the  manly  tread  of  the  men, 


556  PEACE.  1865.] 

who  felt  that  the  eyes  of  the  country  were  on  them,  the  gleam 
of  thousands  upon  thousands  of  bayonets  swaying  in  the  sun- 
beams, the  tattered  and  blood-stained  flags  festooned  with 
flowers — all  aroused  the  enthusiasm  of  the  spectators  and 
caused  a  tempest  of  cheers  along  the  whole  route. 

In  front  of  the  White  House  was  the  reviewing-stand,  on 
which  sat  the  President  and  many  other  distinguished  people. 
As  the  troops  passed  by,  the  officers  saluted  with  their  swords, 
and  the  President  and  his  Cabinet  acknowledged  the  compli- 
ment by  rising.  After  the  salute  the  commanding  officers  of 
each  division  dismounted  and  went  upon  the  stand  to  be  pre 
sented  to  the  President  and  other  officials.  Thus  division  after 
division  and  corps  after  corps  passed  by,  until  every  regiment 
had  borne  its  part  in  the  pageant.  This  was  the  last  review  of 
the  grand  armies  of  the  Union,  but  not  the  last  public  honor 
paid  to  the  men  who  composed  them.  Each  regiment  was 
given  a  splendid  reception  on  its  return  to  its  own  State.  The 
day  of  its  coming  was  made  a  holiday,  and  processions  of  wel- 
come met  the  soldiers  and  escorted  them  with  music  and  the 
joyful  ringing  of  bells  through  avenues  made  grand  with  tri- 
umphal arches  and  floating  banners.  Every  city  and  town 
had  its  celebration,  for  all  felt  it  a  sacred  duty  to  honor  those 
who  had  hastened  to  the  defence  of  the  republic  in  its  hour 
of  peril. 

The  dead  were  not  forgotten  in  the  general  rejoicing. 
National  cemeteries  were  established  on  the  sites  of  the  great 
battle-fields,  where  the  remains  of  the  fallen  were  tenderly  laid 
to  rest  in  graves  fittingly  marked,  to  be  yearly  strewn  with 
flowers  on  a  day  set  apart  for  the  purpose.  Nearly  every  city 
and  town,  too,  has  its  soldier's  monument,  and  many  of  those 
who  took  a  more  prominent  part  in  the  struggle  have  been 
honored  with  statues  by  a  grateful  country.  Thus  the  great 
republic  remembers  its  sons  who  died  that  it  might  live. 

According  to  Southern  estimates  there  were  in  the  Con- 
federacy only  about  six  hundred  thousand  men  fit  to  do  mili- 
tary duty,  and  it  is  said  that  of  these  not  more  than  two 
hundred  thousand  were  ever  in  the  field  at  the  same  time. 
"When  the  war  ended  about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  thou- 
sand were  surrendered  and  paroled,  but  many  of  these  were  in 
hospitals,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  more  than  one  hundred  thou- 


1865.]  POLITICAL   QUESTIONS.  557 

sand  of  them  were  fit  for  duty.  It  is  thought  that  the  Con- 
federate losses  during  the  war  were  at  least  as  large  as  those  of 
the  Union  (300,000),  because  they  had  inferior  means  of  taking 
care  of  the  sick  and  wounded.  If  this  be  true,  the  total  loss 
on  both  sides  was  six  hundred  thousand.  But  to  this  great 
number  must  be  added  three  or  four  hundred  thousand  more 
who  were  crippled  or  disabled  by  sickness,  and  we  have  nearly 
a  million  of  men  lost  to  the  country  by  this  terrible  war. 
When  we  think,  in  connection  with  this,  of  the  immense  cost 
to  both  sides  of  carrying  on  the  war,  the  great  destruction  of 
property,  and  the  sorrow  and  suffering  of  those  who  lost  friends 
and  homes,  we  can  form  some  slight  idea  of  the  fearful  charac- 
ter of  such  a  struggle.  However  much  was  won  by  it,  no  true 
lover  of  his  country  can  ever  look  back  upon  its  horrors  with 
other  feelings  than  those  of  pain  and  regret. 

The  close  of  the  war  gave  rise  to  many  questions  growing 
out  of  the  secession  of  the  Southern  States  about  which  men 
differed  greatly  in  opinion.  Some  thought  that  the  States  had 
the  right  to  take  their  old  places  in  the  Union  and  to  exercise 
at  once  all  the  powers  which  they  had  possessed  before  the  act 
of  secession ;  while  others  thought  that  they  had  lost  their 
rights  as  States  by  the  act  of  secession  and  become  Territories 
again,  and  that  the  Government  could  impose  upon  them  any 
conditions  it  chose.  Neither  of  these  opinions  wholly  pre- 
vailed, but  all  the  States  were  finally  received  back  again  after 
complying  with  certain  conditions,  among  which  were  annul- 
ling the  act  of  secession  and  agreeing  to  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
But  these  subjects  properly  belong  not  to  the  history  of  the 
war  but  to  that  of  the  reconstruction  period — that  is,  the  time 
after  the  war  when  the  question  of  the  return  of  the  lately 
seceded  States  to  a  peaceful  condition  was  the  most  important 
one  before  the  country. 

From  this  let  us  turn  to  a  brief  survey  of  the  causes  and  of 
the  results  of  the  war.  In  the  beginning  of  this  book  has  been 
told  how  early  differences  gradually  caused  jealousy  between 
the  North  and  the  South;  how,  when  an  attempt  was  made  to 
form  a  union  of  all  the  colonies,  this  jealousy  led  to  opposite 
opinions  as  to  the  kind  of  government  to  be  made;  how  the 
Constitution,  as  finally  adopted  by  the  States,  was  not  wholly 
satisfactory  to  either  North  or  South,  but  was  accepted  as  a 


558  PEACE,  [1865. 

compromise — as  the  only  one  which  could  be  made  under  the 
circumstances;  how,  after  it  was  accepted,  disputes  as  to  its 
meaning  gave  rise  to  two  political  parties,  one  the  Federal 
Party,  claiming  that  the  union  of  the  States  constituted  a 
nation,  the  other  the  State  Eights  Party,  claiming  that  it  was 
merely  a  league  of  independent  States ;  how,  though  these 
parties  existed  in  all  the  States,  the  Federal  Party  had  its  chief 
strength  in  the  North,  and  the  State  Eights  Party  in  the 
South;  how  the  questions  of  the  tariff  and  of  slavery  embittered 
the  feeling  between  the  two  sections,  and  caused  the  South  to 
fear  the  loss  of  political  power  and  of  influence  in  the  Union; 
and  how  finally  these  fears  led  to  secession  and  to  an  attempt 
to  break  up  the  Union  in  hope  of  founding  an  independent 
government.  When  war  actually  began  political  parties  on 
both  sides  were  nearly  broken  up,  and  the  two  parts  of  the 
country  took  up  arms  against  each  other,  the  South  fighting 
for  the  principle  that  a  State  has  the  right  to  secede  at  will 
from  the  Union,  the  North  for  the  principle  that  the  Union  is 
perpetual.  It  is  commonly  said  that  slavery  was  the  cause  of 
the  war,  but  this  is  not  an  exact  statement.  It  is  true  that 
slavery  was  used  by  the  principal  men  of  the  South  as  a  means 
to  bring  about  secession;  for  the  mass  of  the  people  were 
taught  by  them  that  the  North  intended  to  abolish  slavery,  and 
this  belief,  strengthened  by  such  acts  as  John  Brown's  raid, 
tended  more  than  any  other  thing  to  bring  about  a  union  of 
the  South  against  what  was  called  the  aggression  of  the  North. 
Thus  not  only  the  extreme  State  Eights  men,  but  also  the 
greater  part  of  those  who  did  not  believe  as  they  did,  were 
brought  together  and  led  to  take  up  arms  in  a  common  cause. 

The  North,  on  the  contrary,  entered  into  the  war  for  the 
preservation  of  the  Union  and  not,  as  the  people  of  the  South 
were  led  to  believe,  for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  There  were,  of 
course,  many  extreme  men  in  the  free  States  who  were  work- 
ing to  secure  that  result,  but  they  did  not  care  whether  the 
Union  was  saved  or  not.  It  is  true  that  the  war  brought  about 
the  end  of  slavery,  but  that  end  was  reached  only  when  the 
destruction  of  the  institution  became  a  military  necessity. 
President  Lincoln  saw  that  if  the  Union  was  to  be  saved 
slavery  must  perish,  and  he  abolished  it  in  the  same  spirit  that 
he  would  have  blown  up  one  of  the  enemy's  fortresses.     Thus 


1865.] 


UNION  FOREVER. 


559 


the  question  of  slavery  and  its  abolition  was  really  a  side  issue 
and  not  the  main  question  of  the  war.  The  real  question  was 
that  of  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  It  was  in  this  cause  that 
the  Union  armies  struggled  hopefully  through  four  dark  years, 
in  this  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  gallant  men  shed  their 
blood,  in  this  that  the  republic  spent  its  gold  so  freely.  Let  us 
hope  that  that  which  cost  so  much  may  be  guarded  by  all  as  a 
sacred  treasure,  and  that  every  parent  may  bring  up  his  children 
to  read  aright  the  story  of  those  bloody  days,  and  inculcate  in 
them  a  true  love  for  that  for  which  their  fathers  fought,  the 


APPENDIX. 


CONFEDERATE  FLAGS* 

THE  first  secession  flags  were  raised  in  Charleston,  when  the  news  of 
President  Lincoln's  election  reached  there.  These  were*called  Pal- 
metto flags,  because  they  bore,  in  one  form  or  another,  the  palmetto  tree, 
the  emblem  of  the  State  of  South  Carolina.  Some  of  them  had  a  blue, 
some  a  white,  and  some  a  red  field,  as  shown  in  the  colored  plate,  and 
some  bore  stars  and  some  crescents.  One  of  the  earliest  ones  had  a  blue 
field,  with  a  palmetto  tree  in  the  middle,  and  a  single  white  star  in  the 
upper  corner  next  to  the  staff.  From  this  one  originated  the  song ''The 
Bonnie  Blue  Flag,"  which  "  bears  a  single  star"  (page  572).  Other  stars 
were  added  as  other  States  joined  South  Carolina  in  secession,  until  some 
flags  had  eleven,  some  thirteen,  and  some  fifteen  stars.  One  of  the  latest 
forms  used  in  1861  was  adopted  on  the  day  the  ordinance  of  secession 
was  passed.  It  had  a  red  field  with  a  blue  cross,  charged  with  stars,  the 
centre  one,  representing  South  Carolina,  being  the  largest  (see  No.  5  in 
the  plate). 

When  North  Carolina  seceded,  a  red,  white,  and  blue  flag  was  adopt- 
ed, the  colors  being  arranged  as  in  the  plate  (No.  10).  It  bore  a  single 
white  star  in  the  red  part,  with  the  words  May  20,  1775,  above  it,  and 
May  20,  1861,  below  it.  The  first  date  is  that  of  what  is  called  the 
"Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence,"  in  which  the  people  of 
Mecklenburg  County  declared  their  independence  of  Great  Britain;  the 
other  is  the  date  of  the  secession  of  the  State  from  the  Union. 

In  Georgia,  the  State  flag  was  first  hoisted — a  white  field  bearing  the 
State  arms,  the  Temple  of  Liberty,  with  the  word  Constitution  on  the 
dome,  and  an  armed  man  standing  below  (No.  11),  but  the  "Stars  and 
Bars,"  with  the  arms  in  the  middle  of  the  union  (No.  12),  was  sometimes 
used.  The  Virginia  State  flag  has  a  blue  field,  with  the  arms  of  the  State 
in  the  middle,  the  figure  of  Liberty  trampling  on  a  figure  which  has  lost 
its  crown  and  sceptre,  and  beneath  it  the  motto,  Sic  Semper  Tyrannis,"  So 
may  it  always  be  with  tyrants." 

The  State  flag  of  Louisiana  before  secession  was  white  and  bore  the 
arms  of  the  State,  a  pelican  feeding  her  young  on  the  nest.  This  was  the 
flag  hoisted  on  the  day  of  secession,  but  objections  were  made  to  it  in  the 
convention  which  passed  the  act  of  secession,  because  the  pelican  is  a 
filthy  and  cowardly  bird,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  choose  a  new 
flag.    As  Louisiana  had  belonged  first  to  Spain,  then  to  France,  and  lastly 

*  gee  colored  plate,  opposite  page  562, 


562  APPENDIX. 

to  the  United  States,  a  flag  made  up  of  the  three  flags  of  those  countries 
was  adopted  (No.  15),  the  red  and  yellow  of  the  union  being  taken  from 
that  of  Spain,  the  red,  white,  and  blue  of  the  stripes  from  that  of  France 
and  the  United  States,  and  the  general  form  from  that  of  the  United 
States.  Other  States  used  their  State  flags  at  first,  though  all  did  not  have 
distinctive  flags. 

When  the  Confederate  Congress  met  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  in 
March,  1861,  many  devices  were  presented  for  flags  for  the  new  nation. 
Most  of  these  were  merely  changed  forms  of  the  old  flag,  showing  that  a 
love  for  it  still  lingered  in  the  hearts  of  the  people;  and  the  form  finally 
chosen,  called  the  "  Stars  and  Bars,"  was  only  the  flag  of  the  Union  in 
disguise  (No.  1).  Indeed,  it  was  so  nearly  like  it  that  it  was  often  mis- 
taken for  it,  as  in  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  (page  98),  and  in  September, 
1861,  a  battle-flag  was  adopted — a  red  field  charged  with  a  blue  saltier  or 
St.  Andrew's  cross,  with  a  narrow  border  of  white,  on  which  were  thir- 
teen white  stars  (No.  2).  In  1863  was  adopted,  in  place  of  the  Stars  and 
Bars,  a  white  flag  with  the  battle-flag  for  a  union  (No.  3);  but  this  having 
sometimes  been  mistaken  for  a  flag  of  truce,  a  red  bar  was  put  on  the  outer 
half  of  the  field  (No.  4)  in  1865.  This  was  the  last  flag  used  by  the  Con- 
federacy. 

JOHN  BROWN'S  BODY. 

The  music  of  this  song  is  an  old  Methodist  camp-meeting  tune.  In  the 
spring  of  1861,  when  the  Boston  Light  Infantry  were  doing  garrison  duty 
in  Fort  Warren,  in  Boston  Harbor,  several  of  the  members  formed  a  glee 
club,  and  amused  themselves  by  singing.  The  air  now  known  as  John 
Brown's  song  pleased  them,  and  they  tried  to  make  for  it  words  appro- 
priate to  the  times.  The  result  was  the  first  verse  of  the  song,  the  words 
of  which  were  fitted  to  the  air  by  Mr.  James  E.  Greenleaf,  organist  of 
the  Harvard  Church  in  Charlestown,  who  found  the  music  among  the 
church  archives.  This  proved  so  acceptable  to  all,  that  Mr.  C.  S.  Hall,  of 
Charlestown,  was  requested  to  write  more  words,  and  he,  as  he  says, 
added^  five  more  verses.  Hall's  Band  was  the  first  to  play  the  tune  in  the 
fort,  and  Gilmore's  Band  the  first  to  play  it  in  Boston.  The  12th  Massa- 
chusetts was  the  first  regiment  to  sing  it  in  the  streets  of  Boston  and  New 
York.  It  at  once  took  a  firm  hold  on  the  soldiers'  hearts,  spread  rapidly 
from  regiment  to  regiment,  and  became  the  favorite  song  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac.  Attempts  were  made  by  several  writers  to  improve  the 
words,  but  the  soldiers  did  not  like  the  changes,  and  the  original  homely 
verses  continued  to  the  close  of  the  war  to  enliven  the  march  by  day  and 
to  cheer  the  camp-fire  by  night.  The  words  as  generally  sung  in  the  army 
are  as  follows: 

John  Brown's  body  lies  a-mouldering  in  the  grave, 
John  Brown's  body  lies  a-mouldering  in  the  grave, 
John  Browrn's  body  lies  a-mouldcring  in  the  grave, 
But  his  soul  is  marching  on! 


STARR  AND  TSARS. 
1861. 


BATTLE  FLAG. 
1861. 


CONFEDERATE  FLAG. 

1868. 


CONFEDERATE  FLAG. 

1865. 


M 


***Tf  •**' 


_H_ 


SOUTH  CAROLINA. 
1861. 


SOUTH  CAROLINA. 
1861. 


i        SOUTH  CAROLINA. 
1861. 


SOUTn  CAROLINA. 

1861. 


SOUTH  CAROLINA. 
1861. 


NORTH  CAROLINA. 
3861. 


JL 


GEORGIA  STATE  FLAG. 


GEORGIA. 
1861. 


VIRGINIA  STATE 
FLAG. 


LOUISIANA  STATE 
FLAG. 


LOUISIANA. 

1861. 


FLAGS    OF    THE    CONFEDERATE    STATES. 


APPENDIX.  563 

Glory,  glory,  hallelujah! 
Glory,  glory,  hallelujah! 
Glory,  glory,  hallelujah! 
His  soul  is  marching  on. 

He's  gone  to  be  a  soldier  in  the  army  of  the  Lord, 
He's  gone  to  be  a  soldier  in  the  army  of  the  Lord, 
He's  gone  to  be  a  soldier  in  the  army  of  the  Lord, 
But  his  soul  is  marching  on! 
Glory,  glory,  etc. 

John  Brown's  knapsack  is  strapped  upon  his  back, 
John  Brown's  knapsack  is  strapped  upon  his  back, 
John  Brown's  knapsack  is  strapped  upon  his  back, 
And  his  soul  is  marching  on! 
Glory,  glory,  etc. 

His  pet  lambs  will  meet  him  on  the  way, 
His  pet  lambs  will  meet  him  on  the  way, 
His  pet  lambs  will  meet  him  on  the  way, 
As  they  go  marching  on! 
Glory,  glory,  etc. 

They'll  hang  Jeff  Davis  on  a  sour  apple  tree, 

They'll  hang  Jeff  Davis  on  a  sour  apple  tree, 

They'll  hang  Jeff  Davis  on  a  sour  apple  tree, 

As  they  go  marching  on ! 

Glory,  glory,  etc. 

Now  three  rousing  cheers  for  the  Union, 
Now  three  rousing  cheers  for  the  Union, 
Now  three  rousing  cheers  for  the  Union, 
As  we  go  marching  on ! 
Glory,  glory,  etc. 


SONG  SUNG  IN  NORFOLK,  VIRGINIA,  IN  1861. 

Jeff  Davis  is  a  brave  man, 

He  will  lead  the  Southern  force, 
I  pity  Lincoln's  soldiers, 

For  I  fear  they  will  fare  worse; 
He  will  show  the  Union  shriekers 

The  Union  it  is  done — ■ 
The  secession  flag,  ere  many  months, 

Will  icave  o'er  Washington  ! 


564  APPENDIX. 

Jeff  Davis  in  the  White  House, 

What  glorious  news  'twill  be! 
Abe  Lincoln  in  an  inglorious  flight, 

In  a  baggage-car  we'll  see ; 
With  Seward  as  conductor, 

General  Scott  as  engineer, 
Old  Hicks,*  the  traitor  governor, 

Following  panting  in  the  rear. 


HOME  AGAIN. 

BY  JEFF   THOMPSON. 

My  dear  wife  waits  my  coming, 

My  children  lisp  my  name, 
And  kind  friends  bid  me  welcome 

To  my  own  home  again. 
My  father's  grave  lies  on  the  hill, 

My  boys  sleep  in  the  vale; 
I  love  each  rock  and  murmuring  rill, 

Each  mountain,  hill,  and  dale. 
Home  again! 

I'll  suffer  hardships,  toils,  and  pain 

For  the  good  time  sure  to  come; 
I'll  battle  long  that  I  may  gain     • 

My  freedom  and  my  home. 
I  will  return,  though  foes  may  stand, 

Disputing  every  rod : 
My  own  dear  home,  my  native  land, 

I'll  win  you  yet,  by  God! 
Home  again! 

0 

HARDTACK. 

BY  FRANCIS  J.  CHILD. 

Would  you  be  a  soldier,  laddy? 

Come  and  serve  old  Uncle  Sam! 
He  henceforth  must  be  your  daddy, 

And  Columbia  jrour  dam. 
Do  you  like  salt-horse  and  beans? 
Do  you  know  what  hard-tack  means? 
Jolty  hard-tack,  tack,  tack,  tack, 
That's  the  stuff  you  have  to  crack; 

*  Governor  Hicks  of  Maryland. 


APPENDIX.  56£ 

Do  you  like  salt-horse  and  beans? 
Do  you  know  what  hard-tack  means? 
That's  the  jolly  stuff  we  soldiers  have  to  crack, 
Hard-tack,  hard-tack,  and  hard-tack! 

Do  you  want  to  be  a  soldier? 

Now's  the  time  to  put  in  play 
"What  your  good  old  granny  told  you 

Of  the  Revolution-day! 
What  had  their  brave  jaws  to  chew? 
Sometimes  nothing — what  have  you? 
Jolly  hard-tack,  tack,  tack,  tack, 
That's  the  stuff  you  have  to  crack ; 
What  had  their  brave  jaws  to  chew? 
Sometimes  nothing — what  have  you? 
What's  the  jolly  stuff  we  soldiers  have  to  crack? 
Hard-tack,  hard-tack,  and  hard-tack! 

Want  to  be  a  soldier,  do  you? 

You  must  march  through  swamps  and  sludge, 
And,  though  balls  go  through  and  through  you, 

Blaze  away  and  never  budge! 
But  when  muskets  go  crack,  crack, 
Bite  your  cartridge  and  hard- tack! 
Jolly  hard-tack,  tack,  tack,  tack, 
That's  the  stuff  you  have  to  crack ; 
When  the  muskets  go  crack,  crack, 
Bite  your  cartridge  and  hard-tack ! 
That's  the  jolly  stuff  we  soldiers  have  to  crack, 
Hard-tack,  hard-tack,  and  hard-tack ! 


YE  BALLADE  OF  MANS.  LOVELL. 

Mans.  Lovell  he  mounted  Ins  general's  steed, 

All  on  the  New  Orleans  levee; 
And  he  heard  the  guns  of  old  Cockee  Butler, 

A-sounding  all  over  the  sea — sea — sea — 
A-sounding  all  over  the  sea! 

"Oh!  what  shall  I  do?"  Mans.  Lovell  he  said— 

"Oh!  what  shall  I  do  ?"  said  he; 
"For  this  Butler's  an  old  Massachusetts  man, 

And  he'll  liang  up  a  traitor  like  me — me — me- 
He'll  hang  up  a  traitor  like  me!" 


566  APPENDIX. 

Mans.  Lovell  he  called  for  a  brandy  cock-tail, 
And  galloped  from  off  the  levee; 

And  he  vamosed  New  Orleans,  betwixt  two  days, 
As  fast  as  his  steed  could  flee — flee — flee — 
As  fast  as  his  steed  could  flee ! 

O  Mansfield  Lovell!  you  left  New  York 

A  rebel  and  traitor  to  be ; 
But  if  ever  you're  caught  by  Cockee  But-ler, 

Look  out  for  your  precious  bod-ee — dee — dee- 
Look  out  for  your  precious  bod-ee ! 


STONEWALL  JACKSON'S  WAY. 

This  poem  is  said  to  have  been  found  on  the  body  of  a  sergeant  of  the 
Old  Stonewall  Brigade  at  Winchester. 

Come,  stack  arms,  men !    Pile  on  the  rails, 

Stir  up  the  camp-fire  bright; 
No  matter  if  the  canteen  fails, 

We'll  make  a  roaring  night. 
Here  Shenandoah  brawls  along, 
There  burly  Blue  Ridge  echoes  strong, 
To  swell  the  brigade's  rousing  song 

Of  "Stonewall  Jackson's  way." 

We  see  him  now — the  old  slouched  hat 

Cocked  o'er  his  eye  askew, 
The  shrewd,  dry  smile,  the  speech  so  pat, 

So  calm,  so  blunt,  so  true. 
The  "Blue-Light  Elder"  knows  'em  well; 
Says  he,  "  That's  Banks — he's  fond  of  shell; 
Lord  save  his  soul!  we'll  give  him" — well, 

That's  "Stonewall  Jackson's  way." 

Silence!  ground  arms!  kneel  all!  caps  off ! 

Old  Blue-Light's  going  to  pray. 
Strangle  the  fool  that  dares  to  scoff! 

Attention !  it's  his  way. 
Appealing  from  his  native  sod 
In  forma  pauperis  to  God — 
Lay  bare  thine  arm,  stretch  forth  thy  rod! 

Amen!     That's  "  Stonewall's  way." 

He's  in  the  saddle  now.     Fall  in! 

Steady — the  whole  brigade! 
Hill's  at  the  ford,  cut  off!     We'll  win 

His  way  out — ball  and  blade. 


APPENDIX.  567 


What  matter  if  our  shoes  are  "worn! 
What  matter  if  our  feet  are  torn ! 
Quick  step!  we're  with  him  before  dawn! 
That's  "  Stonewall  Jackson's  way." 

The  sun's  bright  lances  rout  the  mists 

Of  morning,  and,  by  George! 
There's  Longstreet  struggling  in  the  lists, ' 

Hemmed  in  an  ugly  gorge. 
Pope  and  his  Yankees  whipped  before — ■ 
"Bay 'net  and  grape!"  hear  Stonewall  roar, 
"Charge,  Stuart!    Pay  off  Ashby's  score!" 

That's  "  Stonewall  Jackson's  way." 

Ah,  maiden!  wait  and  watch  and  yearn 
For  news  of  Stonewall's  band ; 

Ah,  widow !  read  with  eyes  that  burn 
That  ring  upon  thy  hand. 

Ah,  wife!  sew  on,  pray  on,  hope  on; 

Thy  life  shall  not  be  all  forlorn : 

The  foe  had  better  ne'er  been  born 
Than  get  in  "  Stonewall's  way." 


MY  MARYLAND. 

The  words  of  this  song  are  by  James  R.  Randall,  a  native  of  Balti- 
more, but  a  resident  of  Louisiana  when  the  war  began.  They  are  said  to 
have  been  written  at  Point  Coupee,  in  April,  1861,  and  to  have  been  first 
published  in  the  New  Orleans  Delta.  The  music  to  which  they  are  adapted 
is  the  German  students'  song,  "O  Tannenbaum,  O  Tannenbaum,"  com- 
monly sung  by  American  students  to  the  words  "Lauriger  Horatius." 

The  despot's  heel  is  on  thy  shore, 

Maryland!  my  Maryland! 
His  torch  is  at  thy  temple  door, 

Maryland!  my  Maryland! 
Avenge  the  patriotic  gore, 
That  flecked  the  streets  of  Baltimore, 
And  be  the  battle-queen  of  yore, 

Maryland  !  my  Maryland  ! 

Hark!  to  a  wandering  son's  appeal, 

Maryland !  my  Maryland ! 
My  Mother  State!  to  thee  I  kneel, 

Maryland!  my  Maryland! 
For  life  and  death,  for  woe  and  weal, 
Thy  peerless  chivalry  reveal, 
And  gird  thy  beauteous  limbs  with  steel, 

Maryland!  my  Maryland! 


568  APPENDIX. 


Thou  wilt  not  cower  in  the  dust, 
Maryland!  my  Maryland! 
Thy  beaming  sword  shall  never  rust, 

Maryland!  my  Maryland! 
Remember  Carroll's  sacred  trust, 
Remember  Howard's  warlike  thrust, 
And  all  thy  slumberers  with  the  just, 
Maryland!  my  Maryland! 

Come!  'tis  the  red  dawn  of  the  day, 

Maryland !  my  Maryland ! 
Come!  with  thy  panoplied  array, 
Maryland!  my  Maryland! 
With  Ringgold's  spirit  for  the  fray, 
With  Watson's  blood  at  Monterey, 
With  fearless  Lowe  and  dashing  May, 
Maryland!  my  Maryland! 

Come!  for  thy  shield  is  bright  and  strong, 
Maryland!  my  Maryland! 

Come!  for  thy  dalliance  does  thee  wrong, 
Maryland!  my  Maryland! 

Come  to  thine  own  heroic  throng, 

That  stalks  with  Liberty  along, 

And  give  a  new  Key  *  to  thy  song, 
Maryland !  my  Maryland ! 

Dear  Mother!  burst  the  tyrant's  chain, 

Maryland!  my  Maryland! 
Virginia  should  not  call  in  vain, 
Maryland!  my  Maryland! 
She  meets  her  sisters  on  the  plain — 
"Sic  semper,"  'tis  the  proud  refrain 
That  baffles  minions  back  amain, 
Maryland!  my  Maryland! 

I  see  the  blush  upon  thy  cheek, 
Maryland!  my  Maryland! 

For  thou  wast  ever  bravely  meek, 
Maryland !  my  Maryland ! 

But  lo !  there  surges  forth  a  shriek, 

From  hill  to  hill,  from  creek  to  creek, 

Potomac  calls  to  Chesapeake, 

Maryland!  my  Maryland! 


*  Francis  S.  Key,  of  Maryland,  author  of  "  Star-Spangled  Banner. 


APPENDIX.  569 

Thou  wilt  not  yield  the  Vandal  toll, 

Maryland !  my  Maryland ! 
Thou  wilt  not  crook  to  his  control, 

Maryland!  my  Maryland! 
Better  the  tire  upon  thee  roll, 
Better  the  shot,  the  blade,  the  bowl, 
Than  crucifixion  of  the  soul, 

Maryland!  my  Maryland! 

I  hear  the  distant  thunder  hum, 

Maryland !  my  Maryland ! 
The  Old  Line  bugle,  fife,  and  drum, 

Maryland !  my  Maryland ! 
She  is  not  dead,  nor  deaf,  nor  dumb — 
Huzza!  she  spurns  the  Northern  scum! 
She  breathes — she  burns!  she'll  come!  she'll  come! 

Maryland!  my  Maryland! 


THE  BATTLE-CRY  OF  FREEDOM. 

This  spirited  song,  one  of  the  most  popular  ones  sung  by  the  Union 
soldiers,  is  by  George  F.  Root,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  but  a  resident 
of  Chicago  at  the  time  of  the  war.  Both  the  words  and  the  music  are  by 
him.     It  was  first  published  in  1861,  in  Chicago. 

Yes,  we'll  rally  round  the  flag,  boys,  we'll  rally  once  again, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom, 
We'll  rally  from  the  hill-side,  we'll  gather  from  the  plain, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom. 

Chorus. — The  Union  forever!     Hurrah!  boys,  hurrah! 
Down  with  the  traitor,  up  with  the  star. 
While  we  rally  round  the  flag,  boys,  rally  once  again, 
Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom ! 

We  are  springing  to  the  call  of  our  brothers  gone  before, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom, 
And  we'll  fill  the  vacant  ranks  with  a  million  freemen  more, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom. 
The  Union  forever,  etc. 

We  will  welcome  to  our  numbers  the  loyal,  true,  and  brave, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom, 
And  altho'  they  may  be  poor,  not  a  man  shall  be  a  slave, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom. 
The  Union  forever,  etc. 


570  APPENDIX. 

So  we're  springing  to  the  call  from  the  East  and  from  the  West, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom, 
And  we'll  hurl  the  rebel  crew  from  the  land  we  love  the  best, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom. 
The  Union  forever,  etc. 


FAREWELL  TO  THE  STAR-SPANGLED   BANNER. 

This  song  was  first  published  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  Jan,  29, 
1861.  It  was  frequently  sung  in  the  theatres  of  that  city  with  great 
applause,  almost  up  to  the  time  of  the  evacuation,  and  it  was  also  very 
popular  in  other  parts  of  the  Confederacy.  The  words  are  by  "Nannie 
Grey"  (Mrs.  E.  D.  Hundley),  the  music  by  C.  T.  De  Coenel.  The  words 
given  below  are  copied  from  music  published  in  Richmond. 

Let  tyrants  and  slaves  submissively  tremble, 
And  bow  down  their  necks  'neath  the  juggernaut  car; 

But  brave  men  will  rise  in  the  strength  of  a  nation, 
And  cry  "  Give  me  freedom,  or  else  give  me  war!" 

Chorus, — Farewell  forever,  the  star-spangled  banner 

No  longer  shall  wave  o'er  the  land  of  the  free; 
But  we'll  unfurl  to  the  broad  breeze  of  Heaven 
Thirteen  bright  stars  round  the  Palmetto  tree. 

We  honor,  yes,  honor,  bold  South  Carolina: 
Though  small  she  may  be,  she's  as  brave  as  the  best, 

With  flag-ship  of  State,  she's  out  on  the  ocean 
Buffeting  the  waves  of  a  dark  billow's  crest. 
Farewell  forever,  etc. 

We  honor,  yes,  honor,  our  seceding  Sisters, 
Who  launched  this  brave  bark  alone  on  the  sea; 

Though  storms  may  howl  and  threaten  destruction, 
We'll  hurl  to  the  blast  the  proud  Palmetto  Tree. 
Farewell  forever,  etc. 

And  when  to  the  conflict  the  others  cry  onward, 

Virginia  will  be  first  to  rush  to  the  fight, 
She'll  break  down  the  iceberg  of  Northern  coercion, 

And  rise  in  her  glory  of  freedom  and  right. 
Farewell  forever,  etc. 

When  the  fifteen  Sisters  in  bright  constellation, 
Shall  dazzling  shine  in  a  nation's  emblem  sky, 

With  no  hands  to  oppose  nor  foes  to  oppress  them, 
They  will  shine  forever,  a  light  to  every  eye. 
Farewell  forever,  etc. 


APPENDIX.  571 

DIXIE'S  LAND. 

This  song  was  written  by  Dan  D.  Eramett  of  Bryants'  Negro  Min- 
strels. It  was  first  sung  in  New  York  City  in  1860,  and  was  published 
there  in  the  same  year.  The  melody  being  a  very  pleasing  one  and  the 
words  being  well  adapted  to  make  it  acceptable  at  tbe  South,  it  became 
popular  there;  and  on  the  outbreak  of  the  war  its  music  was  played  by 
every  Southern  military  band,  while  its  chorus,  "  In  Dixie's  land  I'll  take 
my  stand,  to  lib  and  die  in  Dixie,"  was  sung  almost  universally  from 
Richmond  to  New  Orleans.  Its  popularity  in  the  South  caused  it 
to  be  discarded  in  the  North,  where  its  sale  was  stopped  during  the 
war. 

The  common  belief  that  it  was  originally  a  Southern  song  was  early 
shown  to  be  an  error  by  a  writer  in  the  Charleston  Courier  (June  11, 1861). 
He  says  that  the  melody  is  an  old  Northern  negro  air,  and  that  Dixie's 
land  is  properly  Manhattan  Island  (New  York  Island)  and  not  the  South; 
that  in  the  days  of  slavery  in  New  York,  one  "Dixy"  (Dix?)  owned  a  large 
tract  of  land  on  Manhattan  Island,  where  his  slaves  were  so  happy  that 
when  they  were  finally  removed  they  looked  back  with  regret  to  their  old 
home,  which  they  fondly  called  Dixy's  Land.  In  the  early  days  of  negro 
minstrelsy  any  subject  that  could  be  made  into  a  song  was  eagerly  picked 
up,  and  the  simple  chant  of  the  homesick  negroes  had  a  little  added  to  it 
here  and  there  until  it  grew  into  the  present  song  and  chorus.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  this  rather  fanciful  story  may  have  a  grain  of  truth  in  it,  but  it 
is  certain  that  both  the  melody  and  the  words  were  first  produced  by  Mr. 
Emmett  in  1860.  It  seems  more  probable  that  Dixie's  Land  may  have 
been  suggested  by  Dixon's  Line— that  is,  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line,  or  the 
boundary  line  surveyed  (1763-7)  by  two  English  engineers  of  those  names 
between  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  and  which  was  therefore  the  bound- 
ary between  the  free  and  the  slave  States. 

The  first  verse  of  Dixie's  Land,  as  originally  published,  is  as  follows: 

I  wish  I  was  in  de  land  ob  cotton, 
Old  times  dar  am  not  forgotten, 

Look  away!  look  away!  look  away!  Dixie  Land. 
In  Dixie  Land  whar  I  was  born  in, 
•Early  on  one  frosty  mornin', 

Look  away!  look  away!  look  away!  Dixie  Land. 

Chorus. — Den  I  wish  I  was  in  Dixie,  hooray!  hooray! 

In  Dixie  Land  I'll  take  my  stand,  to  lib  and  die  in  Dixie, 
Away,  away,  away  down  South  in  Dixie, 
Away,  away,  away  down  South  in  Dixie. 

A  few  days  after  the  Star  of  the  West  was  fired  on  while  trying  to 
enter  Charleston  harbor  (January,  1861),  a  ballad  called  "The  Star  of  the 
West  "  was  published  in  the  Charleston  Mercury,  in  which  the  first  verse 


572  APPENDIX. 

was  identical  with  the  above.      The  remaining  two  verses  were    as 
follows : 

In  Dixie  Land  that  frosty  mornin', 
Jis  'bout  de  time  de  day  was  dawnin', 

Look  away,  etc. 
De  signal  fire  from  de  east  bin  roarin', 
Rouse  up,  Dixie,  no  more  snorin', 
Look  away,  etc. 
Chorus. — Den  I  wish  I  was  in  Dixie. 

De  rocket  high  a  blazin'  in  de  sky, 

'Tis  de  sign  dat  de  snobbies  am  comin'  up  nigh, 

Look  away,  etc. 
Dey  bin  braggin'  long,  if  we  dare  to  shoot  a  shot, 
Dey  comin'  up  strong  and  dey'll  send  us  all  to  pot, 
Fire  away,  fire  away,  lads  in  gray. 
Chorus. — Den  I  wish  I  was  in  Dixie. 

These  are  the  earliest  words  adapted  in  the  South  to  the  air  of  Dixie 
that  the  writer  has  been  able  to  find.  The  most  famous  words  are  those 
written  by  General  Albert  Pike,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  but  a  resident 
of  Arkansas  during  the  war.  General  Pike  was  in  the  Confederate  ser- 
vice, and  commanded  a  body  of  Indians  in  the  battle  of  Pea  Ridge  (page 
197).  His  version  of  Dixie  was  first  published  in  the  Natchez  (Miss.) 
Courier  (May  30,  1861).     The  first  verse  is: 

Southrons,  hear  your  country  call  you! 
Up,  lest  worse  than  death  befall  you! 

To  arms!  to  arms!  to  arms  in  Dixie! 
Lo !  all  the  beacon  fires  are  lighted, 
Let  all  hearts  be  now  united! 

To  arms!  to  arms!  to  arms  in  Dixie! 

Advance  the  flag  of  Dixie!  hurrah!  hurrah! 

For  Dixie's  land  we  take  our  stand,  and  live  or  die  for  Dixie! 

To  arms!  to  arms!  and  conquer  peace  for  Dixie! 

To  arms!  to  arms!  and  conquer  peace  for  Dixie! 


THE  BONNIE  BLUE  FLAG. 

This  song,  one  of  the  most  popular  of  the  Confederate  airs,  was  writ- 
ten by  Harry  McCarthy,  in  1861.  The  music  is  quite  spirited,  and  it  was 
played  oftener  by  the  Confederate  bands  than  any  other  air,  excepting 
Dixie. 

We  are  a  band  of  brothers,  and  native  to  the  soil, 

Fighting  for  our  liberty  with  treasure,  blood  and  toil, 

And  when  our  rights  were  threatened,  the  cry  rose  near  and  far, 

Hurrah  for  the  bonnie  blue  flag  that  bears  the  single  star! 


APPENDIX.  573 

Chorus. — Hurrah!  hurrah!  for  Southern  rights  hurrah! 

Hurrah  for  the  bonnie  blue  flag  that  bears  the  single  star. 

As  long  as  the  Union  was  faithful  to  her  trust, 
Like  friends  and  like  brethren,  kind  were  we  and  just, 
But  now  when  Northern  treachery  attempts  our  rights  to  mar, 
We  hoist  on  high  the  bonnie  blue  flag  that  bears  the  single  star. 
Chorus. — Hurrah,  etc. 

First  gallant  South  Carolina  nobly  made  the  stand ; 
Then  came  Alabama,  who  took  her  by  the  baud; 
Next,  quickly,  Mississippi,  Georgia,  and  Florida, 
All  raised  on  high  the  bonnie  blue  flag  that  bears  the  single  star. 
Chorus. — Hurrah,  etc. 

Ye  men  of  valor,  gather  round  the  banner  of  the  right; 
Texas  and  fair  Louisiana,  join  us  in  the  fight, 
Davis,  our  loved  President,  and  Stephens  statesmen  are, 
Now  rally  round  the  bonnie  blue  flag  that  bears  the  single  star. 
Chorus. — Hurrah,  etc. 

And  here's  to  brave  Virginia!  the  Old  Dominion  State 
With  the  young  Confederacy  at  length  has  linked  her  fate; 
Impelled  by  her  example,  now  other  States  prepare 
To  hoist  on  high  the  bonnie  blue  flag  that  bears  the  single  star. 
Chorus. — Hurrah,  etc. 

Then  cheer,  boys,  cheer,  raise  the  joyous  shout, 
For  Arkansas  and  North  Carolina  now  have  both  gone  out; 
And  let  another  rousing  cheer  for  Tennessee  be  given, 
The  single  star  of  the  bonnie  blue  flag  has  grown  to  be  eleven! 
Chorus. — Hurrah,  etc. 

Then  here's  to  our  Confederacy!  strong  we  are  and  brave; 
Like  patriots  of  old,  we'll  fight  our  heritage  to  save; 
And  rather  than  submit  to  shame,  to  die  we  would  prefer, 
So  cheer  for  the  bonnie  blue  flag  that  bears  the  single  star. 

Hurrah!  hurrah!  for  Southern  rights  hurrah! 

Hurrah!  for  the  bonnie  blue  flag  has  gained  the  eleventh  star. 


TRAMP !     TRAMP !     TRAMP ! 

(The  Prisoner's  Hope.) 

This  song,  one  of  the  most  popular  in  the  North  during  the  war,  is 
supposed  to  be  sung  by  a  captive  in  prison.  It  was  a  great  favorite  with 
the  soldiers,  the  measured  notes  of  its  chorus  making  a  fine  marching 
tune.     Both  words  and  music  were  written  by  George  F.  Root,  author  of 


574  APPENDIX. 

the  "Battle-cry  of  Freedom"  (p.  569),  and  were  first  published  in  Chicago 
in  1861.  Mr.  Root's  two  songs  are  published  in  this  book  by  permission 
of  Messrs.  S.  Brainard's  Sons,  Cleveland,  O. 

In  the  prison-cell  I  sit,  thioking,  mother  dear,  of  you, 

And  our  bright  and  happy  home  so  far  away, 
And  the  tears  they  fill  my  eyes,  spite  of  all  that  I  can  do, 
Though  I  try  to  cheer  my  comrades  and  be  gay. 
Chorus. — Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  the  boys  are  marching, 
Cheer  up,  comrades,  they  will  come; 
And  beneath  the  starry  flag  we  shall  breathe  the  air  again 
Of  the  freeland  in  our  own  beloved  home. 

In  the  battle-front  we  stood  when  their  fiercest  charge  they  made, 

And  they  swept  us  off,  a  hundred  men  or  more; 
But  before  we  reached  their  lines  they  were  beaten  back  dismayed, 

And  we  heard  the  cry  of  vict'ry  o'er  and  o'er. 
Tramp,  tramp,  etc. 

So  within  the  prison-cell  we  are  waiting  for  the  day 

That  shall  come  to  open  wide  the  iron  door, 
And  the  hollow  eye  grows  bright,  and  the  poor  heart  almost  gay, 

As  we  think  of  seeing  home  and  friends  once  more. 
Tramp,  tramp,  etc. 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Abolitionists 18,  20,  315 

Acquia  Creek 129 

Adams,  John 8 

Adams,  John  Quincy 12 

Alabama  Claims 407 

Alabama,  Secession  of 44 

Alabama,  The. 403 

Albemarle,  Destruction  of  the  402 

Albemarle  Sound 147,  184,  187 

Alexandria,  La 421,  423,  424 

Alexandria,  Va 83,  84 

Alien  Law 8,  10 

Allatoona  Pass 460,  469 

Amelia  Court-House 533 

Anderson,  Robert,  in  Sumter  in 

1861 39,  42,  55,  62 

in  Kentucky 118 

in  Sumter  in  1865. . .  502 

Andersonville  488 

Anecdotes.     See  Stories. 

Annapolis 66 

Antietam,  Battle  of 284,  287 

Anti-Federalists 6 

Anti-Nebraska  Men 25 

Anti-Slavery  Society 18 

Appomattox  Court  House.  .535,  539 

Arkansas,  Secession  of 73 

Arlington  Heights 83,  84 

Armored  Lookout 250 

Army  of  the  Cumberland 459 

The  Grand  92 

Punishments 312 

of  the  Ohio 459 

of  the  Potomac 138,  240 

of  Northern  Virginia. 258,  539 

of  the  Shenandoah 78 

Sherman's 481,  496 

of  the  Tennessee 459 

Asboth,  Gen 119,  199 

Ashby,  Turner 255 

Atlanta  Campaign 458 

Destruction  of 473 

Importance  of 464 

is  ours,  and  fairly  won.  467 
Atlanta,  Ironclad,  Capture  of . .  392 


PA(!E 

Auger,  C.  C,  at  Port  Hudson. .  343 
Averill,  Gen.,  Defeated  by  Mor- 
gan   443 

Avery  sboro,  Battle  of 504 

Bailey,  Joseph,  Bridges  the  At- 

chafalaya 425 

Saves  Porter's  fleet 424 

Bailey,  Theodoras,  at  New  Or- 
leans   220 

Baker,  E.  D.,  Death  of 132 

Baltimore,  Excitement  in 448 

Massachusetts     Sol- 
diers Mobbed  in. .     65 

Overawed 69 

Ball's  Bluff,  Battle  of 131 

Banks,    N.    P.,  and  the  Anvil 

Chorus 420 

at  Cedar  Mountain 272 

at  Mansfield 422 

at  New  Orleans 228 

at  Port  Hudson 342 

in  the  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley   244 

Succeeded  by  Canby. . . .  425 

at  Winchester 253 

Banner  of  Secession 36 

Barnard,  Gen.,  at  Yorktown  . . .  246 
Barron,  S.,  at  Hatteras  Inlet. . .  146 

Bates,  Edward 53 

Baton  Rouge  taken 229 

Battery,  Railway 69,  70 

Batteries,    Running,    at    Island 

Number  Ten..  204 
at  Vicksburg. ...  327 

Battle  above  the  Clouds 382 

Battle-Cry  of  Freedom,  Song. .  569 

Beach  Grove,  Battle  of 164 

Beaver  Dam  Creek,  Battle  of. . .  264 
Beaufort,  N.  C,  Capture  of . . . .  191 

Beaufort,  S.  C 153,  155 

Beauregard,  P.  G.  T.,  at  Charles- 
ton      55 

at  Corinth 207 

Defeats  Butler 442 


576 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Beauregard,  at  Manassas 93 

Proclamation  by . . .  487 

atShiloh 209,  212 

and     the     Swamp 

Angel 397 

Bee,  Gen.,  at  Bull  Run 95,  96 

Bell,  Capt.,  at  New  Orleans 220 

Belle  Isle 431 

Bells  on  War  Vessels 411 

Belligerents,  Confederates  as.  141,  142 

Belmont,  Battle  of 123 

Bentonsville,  Battle  of 504 

Beige's  Sharpshooters 173 

Bermuda  Hundred 442 

Bio;  Bethel.  Battle  of 88 

Big  Black  River,  Battle  of 332 

Big  Sewell  Mountain,  W.  Va. .  127 

Big  Tybee  Island 155,  192 

Bird's  Point 104 

Black  Republicans 25 

Blair,  Frank  P 74,  460,  481 

Blair,  Montgomery 53,  54 

Blakely  Gun  and  Powder 501 

Blakely,  Storming  of  Fort 511 

Block-Houses.. 84,  85,  386 

Blockade,  Pressure  of  the 144 

Proclamations 71 

Runners 77,  145 

Blue  Bellies,  Nickname 138 

Blue  Birds,  Nickname 138 

Bobolition,  Massa 155 

Boggs,  Charles,  and  the  Varuna  221 

Bomb  Firing 191,  193 

Proofs 194 

Bombardment  of  Fredericksburg  293 

at  Gettysburg. ...  363 

of  Vicksburg. . . .  337 

Bonnie  Blue  Flag,  Song. .  .".528,  572 

Books,  Confederate 301 

Boonville,  Battle  of 105 

Booth,  John  Wilkes 542,  543 

Border  Ruffians 25 

Boy  Recruits,  Confederate 306 

Bovsin  Blue 138 

Boys  in  Gray 138 

Bragg,  Braxton,  at  Chattanooga  379 

at  Chickamauga 376 

General-in-Chief 384 

Invades  Kentucky .  .307,  308 
at  Missionary  Ridge. . . .  384 

at  Murfreesboro 311 

at  Sbiloh 209 

at  Wilmington 494 

Brashear  City,  Capture  of 346 

Breckinridge,  John  C 26,  32 

at  Baton  Rouge. .  229 


PAGE 

Breckinridge  Defeats  Sigel 443 

Interview       with 

Sherman 547 

Joins     Confeder- 
ates   118 

at  Murfreesboro..  314 

at  Shiloh.. 209 

Bridge-Building  on  the  Chicka- 

hominy 258 

Bristow  Station,  Fight  at 273 

Brooks,  Preston  S 25 

Brown,  John 28 

Song 562 

Brunswick  Occupied 196 

Buchanan,  Franklin,  in  the  Mer- 

rimac... 232 

in  the  Tennessee. . . .  414 

Buchanan,  James 26,  34,  42,  45 

Buchanan,  McKean 239 

Buckner,    Simon    B.,    at    Fort 

Donelson .172,  177 

in  Kentuckv 117 

Buell,  Don  C,  at  Corinth 215 

at  Shiloh 210,  213 

Pursues  Bragg 309 

in  Kentucky 117,  161 

Marches  from  Nashville.   208 
Removed  from  Command  311 

Bull  Run,  Battle  of 92 

Monument 103 

Second  Battle  of 274 

Straggler  from 100 

Bullet  Proofs 445 

Bummers,  Sherman's 483 

Burbridge,  Gen., Defeats  Morgan  426 

Burns,  John,  at  Gettysburg 368 

Burnemside's  Boys  189 

Burnside,  Ambrose  E.,  at  Antie- 

tam 286 

Called  to  Washington  298 
Commander  of  Army 

of  the  Potomac 290 

at  Fredericksburg.  292,  297 

atKnoxville 3S0,  384 

at  Roanoke 184 

at  New  Berne 188 

at  Petersburg 453 

Resignation  of 299 

at  Turner's  Gap 281 

in  the  Wilderness 436 

Butler,  Benjamin  F. ,  at  Annap- 
olis      66 

at  Bermuda  Hundred . .  457 

Bottled  up 442 

at  Hatteras  Inlet 145 


INDEX. 


mi 


PAGE 

Butler,  B.  F.,  Advances  toward 

Richmond 435,  442 

Defeated  bv  Beauregard  442 

at  Fort  Fisher 493,  494 

at  Fortress  Monroe. .  .79,  86 

Lands  in  Annapolis 66 

Marches  to  Baltimore. .     69 

at  New  Orleans 227 

Opens  Railway  to  Wash- 
ington      67 

and  Slavery 316 

Butternuts,  Nickname 137 

Buttons  for  Lunch 82 

Cabell,  Gen.,  Captured 426 

Cairo,  Importance  of 104 

Calhoun,  John  C 13,  15,  23 

Tomb  of 37 

Camden,  Battle  of 192 

Cameron,  Simon 52 

Camp  Beach  Grove 162 

Chase 430 

Douglas 430 

Life 134 

at  Night,  Sherman's. ....  484 

Wildcat 160 

Campbell,  John  A 515 

Canal,  Dutch  Gap.  * 457 

at  Island  Number  Ten. .  204 

at  Vicksburg 326 

Canby,  E.  R.  S. . . .' 425,  508 

Cannon  Trucks 202 

Cane  Fear  River 192 

Carnifex  Ferry,  Battle  of 126 

Carr,  Gen.,  at  Pea  Ridge 199 

Carthage,  Battle  of 106 

Casey,  Gen. 257 

Cass,  Lewis 35 

Caves  in  Port  Hudson 345 

in  Vicksburg 335 

Cedar  Creek,  Battle  of 452 

Cemeteries,  National 556 

Centre ville,  Confederates  Fortify  128 

Picnic  at 99 

Chalmette 225 

Chambersburg,  Burning  of.  .450,  451 

Taking  of 356 

Champion  Hills,  Battle  of 332 

Chaucellorsville,  Battle  of 349 

Chantilly,  Battle  of 274 

Chattanooga 375,  379 

Chaplin's  Hills,  Battle  of 309 

Charleston,  Burning  of 500 

Defences  of 390 

Evacuated  by  Har- 
dee   500 


PAGE 

Charleston,  Gillmore  Attacks...  395 

Naval  Attack  on... .  389 

Naval  Raid  at 389 

Public        Property 

Seized  in 41 

Stone  Fleet  at 156 

Chartres,  Due  de 244,  270 

Chase,  Salmon  P. 52,  175 

Chattahoochie    River,    Passage 

of  the 462 

Cheraw,  Entry  into. 503 

Cheat  Mountain,  W.  Va. 127 

Cheatham,  Benjamin  F 124 

Chickahominy,  The 256 

Battle  of  the...  265 

Grant  on  the. .  444 
McClellan      on 

the 250 

Chickamauga,  Battle  of 376 

Christmas  in  the  South,  1862  . .  302 

Christmas  in  Richmond,  1863. .  429 

Christmas  in  Richmond,  1864. .  516 

Cipher  Messages 545 

Clay,  Henry 16,  23 

Clay,  James  B 118 

Cleburne,  Gen.,  Death  of 479 

Clem,  Johun v 378 

Clinch,  Fort,'  Occupied 195 

Cloths,  Home-made 301 

Coffins  Wanted 64 

Cold  Harbor,  Battle  of 445 

Collins,    Napoleon,    Takes    the 

Florida. 405 

Colonies,  Congress  of  the 3 

Northern  and  South- 
ern    2 

Thirteen   1 

Columbia,  Burning  of 499 

Columbus,  Ga. ,  Capture  of 509 

Columbus,  Ky.,  Evacuation  of..  181 

Fortified 122 

Seized  by  Polk.  116 

Comfort,  Old  Point 86 

Commissioners,  Confederate...  53 

Compromise,  Constitution  a 5 

Crittenden 35 

Missouri 12 

Tariff 16 

Compromise  of  1850 23 

Confederacy  in  1863  428 

Confederacy  in  1865 513 

Confederate  Badge 48 

Confidence 101 

Congress,  Meeting 

of 77 

Hopes 354 


578 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Confederate  States 45 

Privations 300 

Confederation  of  1778 4 

Confeds,  Nickname 137 

Congress  Destroyed  by  Merri- 

mac 233 

Congress,  Peace 47 

Resolution  of 102 

Conscription. 320 

Constitution,  Frigate 66 

Constitution,  The 5,  6 

Contraband,  Disgusted 87 

Contraband,  Politic 114 

Contrabands 86,  316,  416 

Convention  of  1787 4 

Hartford  11 

Nullification 15 

Secession 35 

Copperheads 478 

Corcoran,  Michael 141 

Corduroy  Roads 502 

Corinth. 310 

Battle  of 310 

Confederates  at 207 

Occupied 215 

Corps  Badges  347 

Cotton  Burning 224,  498,  509 

King... 77 

Stealing  Raid,  A 424 

Costume,   Secession  Lady's.. 80,  81 

Couch,  Gen "  257 

Crampton's  Gap,  Battle  of . .  . .     282 

Craven,  Capt ,  410 

Crittenden  Compromise 35 

Crittenden,    Geo.    B. ,    in   Ken- 
tucky   162 

Crittenden,  John  J 35 

Crittenden,  Thomas  L 161,  307 

Crook,  Gen.,  Defeated  by  Early.  450 
in  West  Virginia..  443 
Croxton,    Gen.,    Raid    in   Ala- 
bama  ...509,  510 

Culpepper  Court- House. . .  .355,  371 

Cumberland,  Army  of  the 309 

Cumberland,  Frigate,  Saved.  .70,  71 
Sunk  by  Merrimac  233 

Currituck  Sound 187 

Curtis,     Samuel    R.,     in    Mis- 
souri  197,  426 

Gushing,  Wm.  B.,  Destroys  the 

Albemarle 402 

Custis,  Mrs.  Martha 262 

Cynthiana,  Fight  at 426 

Dahlgren,  John  A., at  Charleston  394 
Ulric 431,432 


PAGE 

Dalton,  Johnston  at. 458 

Dam,  Red  River 424 

Dana,  Charles  A.,  Ass't  Secre- 
tary of  War  ...    555 

Darnstown,  Fight  at 131 

Davis,  C.  H.,  Succeeds  Commo- 
dore Foote 216 

Davis,  Jefferson 45,  46,  47 

and  Atlanta 468 

at  Bull  Run 99 

at  Danville 533,  549 

Dissatisfaction  with 514 

Capture  of 552 

Flight  of 549 

Gets  Lee's  Despatch. .. .  524 
Opinion  of  the  Emanci- 
pation Proclamation. .  319 

Pardon  of 553 

Proclamation  of  at  Dan- 
ville  549 

Reward  for 551 

Removes  to  Richmond..     78 
and  the  Story  of  the  Wo- 
man's Clothes 552 

at  Vicksburg 229 

Visits  Bragg.  ...311,  380,  382 

Davis,  Jefferson  C 481 

at  Jefferson  City 115 

at  Pea  Ridge 199 

Davis,  John,    and  the  Powder 

Keg 187 

Decoration,  Kearny 275 

Democratic  Party .7,  12 

Division  of.  .     32 
and  Slavery..     22 

Democratic  Republicans 6 

De  Peyster,  Johnston 529,  530 

Deserters.  Confederate 513 

Dinwiddie  Court-House,  Fight 

at -517 

Dix,  John  A 44 

Medal 45 

Dixie's  Land,  Song.' 528,  571 

Donaldsonville  Bombarded.  . . .  229 

Donelson.'Fort,  Siege  of 172 

Douglas,  Stephen  A 32,  51 

Drafting 321,  554 

Drainsville,  Fight  near 138 

Drayton,    Percival,    at    Mobile 

Bay 409 

at  Port  Royal 153 

Drayton,  T.  F.,  at  Port  Royal  153 

Dred  Scott  Case 26 

Drummer  Boy  of  Fredericks- 
burg  294 

of  Vicksburg. .  334 


INDEX. 


579 


PAGE 

Dug  Spring,  Battle  of 107 

Dupont,  S.  F.,  Attacks  Charles- 
ton   389 

in  Georgia  and 

Florida 195 

at  Hilton  Head.  152 

Eagle,  Pet 485 

Early,  Jubal,  Attacks  Washing- 
ton   449 

at  Bull  Run 98 

at       Chancellors- 

ville 350 

in  Maryland 448 

at  Opequan  Creek  451 

Eastport,  Sinking  of  the 423 

Elkhorn,  Battle  of 200 

Ellet,  Charles,  Jr 217 

Ellsworth,  Col.,  Death  of 85 

Emancipation,    in    North    and 

South 17 

Proclamations. 

318,  319 
and  Slavery..  ..  315 

Epigram,  Confederate 64 

on  Gen.  Halleck 291 

Ericsson,  John 235,  238 

Evans,  Gen.,  at  Ball's  Bluff.. . .   131 
Ewell,   11.  S.,  at  Cedar  Moun- 
tain   272 

at  Culpeper 355 

BurnsRichniond  527 

Capture  of 535 

at  Gettysburg . .. 

360,  363 
in    the    Wilder- 
ness   435 

Wounded 274 

Fairfax,  Donald  M 157 

Fair  Oaks,  Battle  of 257,  258 

Farewell   to  the  Star-Spangled 

Banner,  Song 570 

Farragut,  David  G 43 

at  Mobile  Bay 408 

at  New  Orleans 218 

at  Port  Hudson 343 

in  the  Shrouds 409 

Fayetteville,  Sherman  at 503 

Federal  Government,  The 4,  6 

Party 7,10,  11 

Federalists 6 

Feds,  Nickname 138 

Fernandina  Occupied 196 

Filibustering 27 

Finnegan,  Gen.,  at  Olustee 400 


PAGB 

Fire  Rafts 219 

Fisher's  Hill,  Battle  of 451 

Fishing  Creek,  Battle  of 164 

Five  Forks,  Battle  of 520 

Flag,  a  False 109 

Firing  on  the 43 

of  Fort  Macon 191 

New  Confederate 393 

Flags,  Confederate 561 

Floating  Battery,  Charleston .  56,  58 

Florida,  Secession  of 44 

Florida,  The 405 

Floyd,  John  B 34,  42 

at  Fort  Donelson.  .  .172,  177 

in  West  Virginia 126 

Foote,   Andrew   Hull,  at  Fort 

Donelson 176 

at  Fort  Henry 166,   168 

at  Island  Number  Ten.   203 

at  Fort  Pillow 216 

Preaches  in  Cairo 171 

Foragers,  Sherman's 483 

Foraging 135 

Forge,  Army 164 

Forrest,    N.    B.,    Defeated    by 

Wilson 509 

at  Fort  Donelson 177 

at  Fort  Pillow 417 

in  Memphis 419 

at  Paducah 417 

in  Tennessee 307 

Forts  and  Fortresses 85 

Fortress  Monroe 85 

Foster,  John  G.,  at  New  Berne.  188 

in  North  Carolina 398 

at  Roanoke 184 

Fox,  G.  V.,  Assistant  Secretary 

of  Navy 54,  555 

France,  S3'mpathy  for 8 

Troubles  with 8 

Franklin,  Battle  of 479 

Franklin,  Win.  B.,  at  Antietam  286 
at  Crampton's  Gap. . .   282 

at  Fredericksburg 296 

Capture   and   Escape 

of 449 

in  the  Peninsula 250 

Frazier's  Farm,  Battle  of 268- 

Frederick  City, McClellan's Wel- 
come in 280 

Fredericksburg,  Battle  of 296 

Free-Soil  Party 21,  24 

Free  Trade 13 

Frietchie,  Barbara 278 

Fremont,    John    C,    at    Cross 
Keys 254 


580 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Fremont,  J.  C,  in  Command  in 

the  West 106 

Marches  against  Price  119 

for  President 476 

Proclamation 113 

and  Slavery 316 

Succeeded  by  Hunter  121 

French  Princes 244,  270 

Fuse  Plugs,  Whittling 194 

Fugitive  Slave  Law 23 

Funeral,  Suspicious 82 

Gadsden,  Christopher 3 

Gaines's  Mills,  Battle  of. .  ..265,  266 

Galveston,  Taking  of 230 

Game,  Frightened 314,  350 

Gardner,  Colonel 38 

Gardner,    Frank    K.,    at    Port 

Hudson 344 

Garfield,    James    A.,    Defeats 

Marshall 161 

Garland,  Gen.,  Death  of 282 

Garnett,  Robert  S.,  Death  of. . .  91 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd 18 

Georgetown 83 

Georgia,  Secession  of 44 

Gettysburg,  Battle  of 358 

Gibson,  Randal  L.,  at  Mobile  .  510 
Gilmor,  Harry,  in  Maryland. . .  449 
Gillmore,  Quincy  A.,  at  Charles- 
ton   395 

at  Fort  Pulaski 193 

Succeeds  Hunter 392 

Glendale,  Battle  of 268 

Gold,  Changes  in  Price  of 476 

Goldsboro,  Sherman  in 504 

Taking  of 496 

Goldsborough,  Louis  M 184 

Gordonsville 272 

Gosport  Navy  Yard,  Ships  Sunk 

at 70 

Grand  Gulf 329,  330 

Granger,  Gordon,  at  Mobile 511 

Grant,  U.  S.,  in  Army  of  the 

Tennessee 306 

Asks  Leave  of  Absence.  305 

at  Belmont. 123 

Changes  his  base 446 

at  Chattanooga 380 

on  the  Chickahominy. .  444 

at  Corinth 309 

Early  Life 117 

at  Fort  Donelson 172 

and  Lee 538 

Lieutenant-General 433 

at  Petersburg 456 

Plan  of  Campaign 434 


PAGE 

Grant,  U.  S. ,  Plan  to  take  Vicks- 

burg 324 

Crosses  the  Rapidan 435 

Second  in  Command 215 

and  Sherman 468 

at  Shiloh 210,  211,  213 

at  Spottsylvania 437 

and  the  Steamboat  Men..  341 

Writes  to  Lee 535 

Graybacks,  Nickname 137 

Grape  and  Canister  Shot 409 

Great  Britain,  Trouble  with 10 

Greble,  John  T.,  Death  of 89 

Greenbacks 476 

Gregg,  Fort,  Storming  of 521 

Grenades,  Hand 385 

Grierson,  Benjamin  H.,  Raid  in 

Mississippi 328 

Defeated  by  Forrest..  419 

Groveton,  Battle  of 274 

Gunboat  Fight  near  Fort  Pillow  216 
before  Memphis  217 

Guns,  Moving  Heavy 202 

Spiking 204 

Gun  Town,  Fight  at 419 

Haines's    Bluff,    Sherman    At- 
tacks   330,  333 

Halleck,    Henry  W.,  Angry  at 

Grant 207 

Chief  of  Staff 434 

at  Corinth 215,305 

Epigram  on .  291 

Finds      Fault      with 

Meade 371 

General-in-chief 271 

Insults  Gen.  Sherman  548 
Interferes  with  Grant 

and  Foote 180 

in  Missouri 121 

Visits         McClellan's 

House 276 

Hamilton,  Alexander 7 

Hampton,  Wade,  in  South  Caro- 
lina   496 

Hancock,  Winfield  S.,  at  Cold 

Harbor 445 

Decides  to    fight  at 

Gettysburg 360 

at  Gettysburg 365 

at  Petersburg 456 

at  Spottsylvania....  439 

in  the  Wilderness. . .  435 

at  Williamsburg. . . .  249 

Hanover  Court-House,  Battle  at  252 

Hardee,     W.      J.,     Evacuates 

Charleston 500 


INDEX. 


581 


PAGE 

Hardee,  W.  J.,  in  Kentucky. . .  308 

at  Savannah 489,  490 

at  Shilob 209 

Hardin,  Col.,  Captures  Davis..  552 

Hard-Tack 135 

Hard-Tack,  Poem  by  F.  J.  Child  564 
Harper's  Ferry,  Evacuation  of .     69 
Importance  of.     78 
Taken  by  John 

Brown 28 

Taken  by  Stone- 
wall Jackson  282 

Harney,  William  S  75 

Harris,  Rev.  Matthias 40,  502 

Harrison,  William  Henry 20 

Hartford  Convention 11 

Hartford  on  Fire,  Ship 222 

Hartsuff,  Gen.,  at  Antietam. . . .  285 

Hatchie  River,  Battle  of 310 

Hatteras  Inlet 184,  187 

Expedition  to....  145 

Havelocks 80 

Hayne,  Robert  Young 14 

Hazen,   Gen.,   Takes  Fort  Mc- 
Allister      490 

Heintzelman,  Gen 242,  257 

Helena,  Ark. ,  Attacked 342 

Henry,  Fort,  Capture  of 166 

Henry,  Mrs.  Judith,  Story  of . .     96 

Hill,  A.  P.,  Death  of 521 

at  Fredericksburg.  355 
at  Gaines's  Mills..  265 

at  Gettysburg 361 

'    at  Gordonsville. . .   272 
in  the  Wilderness.  435 

Hill,  D.  H,  at  Big  Bethel 88 

at  Gaines's  Mills. .  265 
in  North  Carolina.  398 
at  Seven  Pines...   257 

Hilton  Head 152 

Hindman,  Fort,  Taken  by  Sher- 
man  326 

Hoke,  R.  F.,  at  Kinston 496 

at  Plymouth 400 

Holly  Springs,  Captured  by  Van 

Dorn 325 

Holt,  Joseph 43 

Holystone 412 

Home    Again,    Poem    by   Jeff 

Thompson 564 

Hood,  J.  B.,  Attacks  Sherman.  464 

at  Atlanta 467 

at       Chancellors- 
vide 350,  352 

Flies    from    Ten- 
nessee   480 


PAGE 

Hood,  J.  B.,  at  Franklin 478 

at  Gettysburg 362 

Marches       toward 

Tennessee 469 

at  Nashville 479 

Succeeds  Johnston  463 
Hooker,  Joseph  E.,  at  Antietam  285 
Commands    Army    of 

the  Potomac 299 

at  Fredericksburg.  292,346 
at  Lookout  Mountain.  381 

at  Williamsburg 249 

Hotel  de  Vicksburg 338 

Howard,  O.  O.,  at  Ckaucellors- 

ville 350 

at  Fair  Oaks 258 

with  Sherman 481 

Succeeds  McPhersou. .  466 

Howe,  Orion  P 334 

Huger,  Benjamin 185,  264 

Hunter,  David,  in  Department 

of  the  South 194 

at  Piedmont 443 

Succeeds  Fremont. .. .  121 

Succeeds  Sigel 443 

and  Slavery 316 

Hunter,  R,  M.  T 515 

Huntsville  Taken 215 

Hurlbut,  Gen.,  at  Shiloh 211 

Huts,  Soldiers' 138,  139 

Imboden,  Gen.,  at  Gettysburg..  366 

Imperial,  Steamboat 345 

Indians  at  Pea  Ridoe 197,  200 

Island  Number  Ten...  116,  201,  205 
Irishman  at  Bull  Run,  Story  of.     97 
Iron-Clads.     See  War  Ships 
Iron-clad  Rams  built   in   Eng- 
land  406 

Iron-clad  Vessels. . .  231 

Islands,  Mississippi  River. .....  201 

Iuka,  Battle  of 310 

Jackson,  Andrew.  '. 13 

Jackson,  Camp,  Seizure  of 74 

Jackson,  Miss.,  Capture  of.  .331,  342 
Jackson,  Governor,  of  Missouri  105 
Jackson,  H.R.,in  West  Virginia  128 
Jackson,  James  T.,  Death  of...  85 
Jackson,  Stonewall,  at  Bull  Run     95 

at  Cedar  Mountain 272 

at  Chancellorsville 350 

at  Chantilly 274 

Death  of 351 

Defeats  Banks 254 

Early  Life  of 253 


582 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Jackson,  Stonewall,  Defeated  at 

Kernsiown 244 

at  Fredericksburg 296 

in  Frederick  City 278 

at  Harper's  Ferry.  .79,  281 
Pursues  McClellan. . .  267 
at  Second  Bull  Run...  274 
in  Shenandoah  Valley  254 

Jacksonville  Occupied 196 

James  River,  Grant  Crosses . . .  447 

Jefferson  City 105 

Jefferson,  Thomas 7,  10 

John  Brown's  Body,  Song.. 473,  562 

Johnnies,  Nickname 137 

Jolmny  Reb,  Nickname 138 

Jobnson,  Fort 39,  56 

Johnson,  Andrew,  Gov.  of  Ten- 
nessee   180 

President 544 

Johnson,  Reverdy,  Portrait  of. .  330 
Johnston,  Albert  S.,  Death  of. .  211 

in  Kentucky 165 

Retreats  from  Nash- 
ville  179 

at  Sbiloh 209 

in  Tennessee 207 

Johnston,  Bradley,  in  Maryland  449 
Johnston,  Edward,  in  West  Vir- 
ginia   128 

Johnston,  Joseph  E.,  at  Atlanta  463 

at  Bull  Run 96 

at  Dalton 458 

Evacuates     Harper's 

Ferry 91 

at  Fair  Oaks 257 

Hears    of    Lincoln's 

Death 546 

at  Harper's  Ferry 78 

Interview  with  Sher- 
man   547 

in  Mississippi 327 

Succeeded  by  Hood..  463 
Succeeds        Beaure- 
gard   503,  515 

Succeeds  Bragg 384 

Surrender  of 548 

at  Yorktown 248 

Joinville,  Prince  de 244,  270 

Jubilee,  De  Day  ob 417 

Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 24 

Kansas  Troubles 25 

Kearny,  Philip,  Death  of 274 

Early  Life  of 275 

at  Williamsburg 249 

Kenesaw  Mountain 460,  462 


PAGB 

Kentuckians  at  Shiloh 214 

Kentucky,  Bragg's  Raid  in 308 

Refuses  to  Secede. .  76 

Resolutions 9 

Sham  Secession  of . .  160 

Kernstown,  Battle  of. 450 

Keyes,  E.  D 242,  257 

Kilpatrick,  Judson,  Defeated  by 

Hampton 503 

Raid  in  Virginia 431 

with  Sherman 482 

Kinney,  J.  C,  at  Mobile  Bay...  410 

King  Cotton 77 

Kite  with  a  Valuable  Tail 83 

Knocked  down  Temporarily. . .  60 

Knoxville,  Siege  of 384 

Lady  Davis,  Privateer 140 

Fafayette,  Fort 133 

Laird,  Builder  of  the  Alabama.  406 

Lane.  James  H 114 

Laws,  Alien  and  Sedition 9 

Personal  Liberty 23 

Lee,  Custis,  Capture  of 535 

Lee,  Eddy,  the  Drummer  Boy..  Ill 
Lee,  Robert  E.,  Advises  Evacu- 
ation of  Richmond 521 

at  Antietam 284 

Brigadier-General 78 

Campaign  against  Pope. . . 

272,  277 
Captures  John  Brown. .. .     30 

at  Chancellorsville 350 

at  Cold  Harbor 445 

Commander-in-Chief 514 

Crosses  the  Potomac 277 

at  Fredericksburg 292 

Home  of 84 

LastAttack  on  Union  Lines  518 
Major-General  of  Virginia.     78 

Marches  Northward 355 

on  the  North  Anna 441 

in  Pennsylvania 357 

at  Petersburg 456 

Retreat  from  Petersburg. .  533 

in  South  Carolina 128 

at  Spottsylvania 437,  440 

Surrender  of 533,   540 

in  Western  Virginia. .  ..89,  126 

in  the  Wilderness 435 

Lee,  Mrs.  R.  E 262 

Lee,  W.  H.  F.,  Wounded 356 

Leesburg,  Battle  of 133 

Lewinsville,  Fight  at 131 

Lexington,  Mo.,  Siege  of 114 

LibbyPrison 431,  531,  532 


INDEX. 


583 


Liberty  Party 20 

Liberty,  Mo.,  Seizure  of  Arse- 
nal at 74 

Lidell,  St.  John,  Gen.,  at  Mobile  511 

Lighthouse,  Mobile 413,  414 

Lincoln,   Abraham,    Anecdotes 

of 68,  349 

Assassination  of 542 

Cabinet  of 52 

Calls  for  Volunteers. .     63 
Debate  with  Douglas.     50 

Early  Life  of 50 

Inaugural  Address  of.     52 

Inauguration  of 50 

Letter  of 317 

Meets        Confederate 

Commissioners 515 

Monument  of 544 

Nominated  for  Presi- 
dent      32 

Opposes  McClellan...   242 

Order  by 242 

Re-elected  President..  478 

in  Richmond 541 

to  Sherman 468 

Visited  by  Sherman . .   505 

and  Slavery 315 

Visits  the  Army 270 

Visits         McClellau's 

House 276 

Lincoln,  Robert 542 

Liquors,  Home-made 302 

Little  Bethel 88 

Little  Cheat  River,  Skirmish  at.     91 
Little  Washington  Attacked. . .  398 

Locomotive,  a  Disabled 67 

Logan,  John  A 496 

Longstreet,  James,  at  Appomat- 
tox    537 

at  Chickamauga. . .   376 

at  Culpepper 355 

at  Gaines's  Mills . .  .  265 
at  Gettysburg.. 361,  363 
at  Knoxville...380,  384 

at  Seven  Pines 257 

in  the  Wilderness. .  436 
at  Williamsburg. . .   249 

Lookout  Mountain 381 

Louisiana,  Secession  of 44 

Loveli,  Ballade  of  Mans 565 

Lovell,  Mansfield,  at  New  Or- 
leans  219,  224 

Lunch  Basket,  Suspicious 82 

Lundy,  Benjamin 18 

Lynch,  W.  F.,  at  Roanoke 185 

Lyons,  Lord 159 


PAGE 

Lyon,  Nathaniel,  Seizes  Camp 

Jackson 74 

at  Wilson's  Creek 109 

in  Command  in  Missouri  105 

Macon,  Fort,  Capture  of 191 

Madison,  James 10 

Maffitt,  John  N.,  in  the  Florida  405 
Magruder,  J.  B.,  at  Hampton. .     79 

at  Richmond 264 

at  Yorktown 246 

Mahone,  Gen.,  at  Appomattox..  537 

Malvern  Hill,  Battle  of 268 

Manassas,  Confederates  at 130 

Confederates  leave. .  243 

Junction 78,  93 

News  from 188 

Second  Battle  of 274 

Mansfield,  Battle  of 422 

Mansfield,  Gen.,  Death  of 285 

March  to  the  Sea 475 

Marietta 460,  462 

Marmaduke,  Gen,  Captured...  426 

Marshall,  Humphrey 118,   161 

Martello  Towers 155 

Mason,  James  M 156,   159 

Massachusetts  Sixth  Regiment.     65 
Eighth  Regiment    66 
Twelfth       Regi- 
ment      562 

Marye's  Hill,  Assault  on 296 

Mary's  Caps 81,  82 

Maryland  Heights 2S2 

Maryland,  My  Maryland,  Song.  277 
Maryland,  First  Confederate  In- 
vasion of 277 

Mattapony  River 240 

Maury,  D.  H.,  at  Mobile. .  .508,  511 

McAllister,  Fort,  Attack  on ...  „  388 

Storming  of  Fort..  490 

McCall,  Gen 131,  266 

McClellan,  George  B.,   at  Au- 

tietam 284 

Begged  to  Save  the 

Army ...  276 

Crosses  the  Chicka- 

hominy 256 

Called  to  Command  103 
Change  of  Base. .. .  265 
Farewell  Address..  290 

Follows  Lee 289 

in  Frederick  City..  280 
General-in-Chief  of 

the  Armies 138 

at  Harrison's  Land- 
ing   269 


584 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

McClellan,  George  B.,  Organizes 

the  Army 241 

Plan  of  Campaign.. 

242,  246 

for  President 477 

Removed  from  Gen- 
eral Command. . .  243 
Removed  from  Com- 
mand of  Army  of 

Potomac 290 

in  Western  Virginia    89 

Pies 135 

McClernand,  John  H.,  at  Bel- 
mont.   123 

at  Corinth 215 

at  Fort  Donelson 

175,  177 
Removed      from 

Command 334 

at  Shiloh 211 

at  Vicksburg 325 

McCook,  Alex.  McD 161,  375 

McCook,  Daniel 375 

McCook,  Robert  L 375 

McCulloch,  Ben.,  at  Carthage..  106 

Death  of 199 

at  Pea  Ridge 197 

McDowell,Irvin,in  Command  of 

Army  of  Potomac    92 
in  Command  of  De- 
partment of  Rap- 
pahannock    245 

at  Fredericksburg.. .   252 

with  McClellan 242 

in  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley   254 

Mcintosh,  Gen.,  Death  of 199 

McKinstry,  Gen 119 

McPherson,  James  B.,  in  Atlan- 
ta Campaign. . . .  459 
Commands     Army 
of  the  Tennessee  434 

Death  of 465 

at  Raymond 331 

at  Vicksburg 333 

Meade,  Geo.  G. ,  Crosses  Rapidan  435 

at  Fredericksburg 296 

at  Gettysburg 361 

Halleck     Finds    Fault 

with 371 

Succeeds  Hooker 357 

Mechanicsville,  Battle  of 264 

Medal,  Dix 45 

Memphis,  Fortifications  of 207 

Occupied 217 

Sherman  in 306 


PAGE 

Men-of-War.     See  War  Ships. 

Meridian  Expedition 415 

Merrimac,  Iron-clad 70,  231,  250 

Mervine,  William 140 

Methodist  Regiment,  The 332 

Mexican  War 21 

Mexico,  French  in 354 

Miles,  Col.,  Death  of 282,  283 

Mill  Spring,  Battle  of 162 

Milledgeville,  Sherman  in 486 

Millen,  Prison  Pen  at.   487,  488 

Milliken's  Bend,  Fight  at 342 

Millions  for  Defence 8 

Milroy,  Robert  H 128,  253,  356 

Mines  at  Vicksburg 336 

Missionary  Ridge 381,  383 

Mississippi,  Army  of  the 325 

Mississippi,  Secession  of 44 

Missouri  Compromise 12 

Missouri,  Last  Invasion  of 426 

Mitchell,  Ormsby  M 161,  214 

Mobile  and  its  Bay 407,  508 

Capture  of 512 

Defences  of 510 

Money,  Confederate  Paper 

302,  500,  513 

Cotton 306 

Monitor,  The  234 

Monocacy,  Battle  of  the 448 

Monroe,  Fortress 85 

The  Monitor  at 234 

Monroe,  James 11 

Montgomery,  State-House  at. . .     46 

Wilson  in 509 

Morehead  City,  Capture  of . . . .  191 
Morgan,  John  H.,  Capture  of..  374 

Captures  by 312 

Death  of 427 

Defeated 373 

Early  Life 181 

Joins  Confederates 118 

Marriage  of 311 

Raid  in  Kentucky  307,  426 

Raid  in  Ohio 373 

Mortars 193 

Mortar  Boats 203 

Schooners 218,  221 

Mosby,     John     S. ,      Captures 

Gen.  Stoughton 347 

Mosquito  Fleet 152 

Moultrie,  Fort 38,  39,  56 

Mount  Stirling,  Fight  at 426 

Mount  Vernon 128 

Mule  Meat 338 

Mulligan,    James  A.,   Defends 
Lexington 114 


INDEX. 


585 


PAGE 

Mulligan,  James  A.,  Death  of. .  450 
Mumford,    Wra.    B.,    and    the 

Union  Flag. 226,  227 

Mumfordsville,  Battle  of 308 

Munson's  Hill 128,  130 

Murfreesboro,  Battle  of 313 

Muskets  at  Gettysburg 367 

Musketry  Fire,  Terrible 441 

Myer,  Albert  J 470 

My  Maryland,  Song 567 

Napoleon  III.  Offers  Mediation  354 
Rumors  about. . .  515 

Nashville  Attacked 311 

Confederates  Evacu- 
ate   179 

Natchitoches,  La 421 

National  Debt 476 

National  Republican  Party. ...     12 
Naval  Academy.   Removed  to 

Newport 140 

Affairs , 140 

Navy.     See  War  Ships. 

Neckties,  Jeff  Davis's 415 

Negley,  Gen.,  Defends  Nashville  311 
Negro  and  Ambulance,  Story  of  100 

Negro  Soldiers 430,  531 

Negroes  in  Richmond 531 

Follow  Sherman 482 

New  Berne  Attacked 398 

Capture  of 188 

Daily  Progress 189 

New  Hope  Church 460 

New  Madrid 201,  205 

Pillow  at 116 

New  Orleans,  Capture  of 218 

New  York  Seventh  Regiment . .     66 

Newport  News, 87 

Newspaper,  An  Old 196 

Norfolk  Evacuated 250 

North  Anna  River 240 

Lee  on  the 441 

North  Carolina,  Coast  of 192 

Secession  of. . .     73 

Northern  Determination 101 

North  and  South,  Wealth  of . . .     13 
Nullification 10,  14,  15 

Oak  Bluff,  Battle  of 110 

Occoquan  River 240 

Ohio,  Army  of  the 309 

Okolona,  Fight  at 417 

Old  Abe,  the  War  Eagle 485 

Old  Hundred  in  Camp 332 

Old  Ironsides  Saved 66 

Old  Probabilities 470 


PAGE 

Olustee,  Battle  of 400 

Omnibus  Bill 22 

On  to  Richmond 92 

Opequan  Creek,  Battle  of 451 

Ord,  E.  O.  O,  at  Drainsville. . .   138 

at  Hatchie  River 310 

Succeeds  McClernand 334 

Osterhaus,  P.  J 481 

Pack  Mules 482 

Paducah,  Ky.,  Occupied 117 

Paine,     Lieutenant,     Saves     a 

Drowning  Man 353 

Palmetto  Tree 36 

Pamlico  Sound 147,  184 

Pamunkey  River 240 

Paper  in  the  South,  Scarcity  of.  301 
Parke,  John  G.,  at  New  Berne.  188 

at  Roanoke 184 

Succeeds  Burnside 454 

Paris,  Comte  de 244,  270 

Parsons,  Joe 288 

Parties,  Rise  of 6 

Patterson,  Robert,  at  Chambers- 
burg 83 

Crosses  the  Potomac    91 
Marches  to  Charles- 
town 91,  96 

Paulding,  Hiram 70 

Pea  Ridge,  Battle  of 197,  200 

Peace  Commissioners,  Confed- 
erate    515 

Peace  Congress 47 

Peace  Party 355 

Peck,  Oscar,  Powder-boy 221 

Pegram,   Surrender  of   Colonel 

90,  91 

Pemberton,  John  C 311,  324 

Peninsula  Campaign 240 

Pensacola 48 

Personal  Liberty  Laws 23 

Perryville,  Battle  of 309 

Petersburg,  Attack,  on 447 

Entry  into 522 

Grand  Assault  at..   520 

Mine  at 453 

Petrel,  Privateer 140,  142 

Petticoats,  Suspicious 80,  81 

Pettigrew,  Gen.,  at  Gettysburg  364 

Pets,  Soldiers' 485 

Phelps,  J.  W.,  on  Ship  Island..  218 

Philadelphia,  Panic  in 356 

Philippi,  Skirmish  at 90 

Pickens   Fort 48,  147 

Pickens,  Governor 38 

Picket  Talks. 258,  302 


586 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Pickett,  Gen. ,  at  Gettysburg. . .  364 

Pierce,  Franklin 24 

Pigeon,  Pet 485 

Pike,  Albert 197,  572 

Pillow,  Gen.,  at  Fort  Donelson 

172,  177 

at  New  Madrid 116 

Pillow,  Fort 207 

Massacre  at 417,  418 

Pinckney,  Castle 38 

Pittsburg  Landing 207 

Battle  of....  209 

Pleasant  Hill,  Battle  of 423 

Pleasanton,  Gen.,  Attacks  Stu- 
art   356 

in  Missouri 426 

Plymoutb,  Loss  of 400 

Polk,  James  Knox 20 

Polk,  Leonidas,  at  Chickamau- 

ga 376 

at  Columbus 116,  123 

Death  of 461 

Early  Life 113 

in  Kentucky 308 

at  Shiloh 209 

Politicians  and  the  Negro 492 

Pontoon  Bridges  at  Fredericks- 
burg   293 

Pope,  John,  Address  to  Army.   271 
Captures  New  Madrid. . .  202 

at  Corinth 215 

at  Fort  Pillow 216 

in  Missouri 115 

Returns  West 276 

at  Second  Bull  Run 274 

at  Washington 274 

Popular  Sovereignty 23 

Port  Gibson,  Battle  of 330 

Port  Hudson,  Siege  of 342 

Port  Royal 152,   153 

Porter,  David 169 

Porter,  David  D.,  Destroys  the 

Arkansas 230 

at  Fort  Fisher 493 

at  New  Orleans 218,  226 

in  Red  River  Expedition 

420,  423 

at  Vicksburg 326,  327 

Porter,  Fitz  John,  at  Antietain 

286,  287 
at  Beaver  Dam  Creek..  264 
Dismissed  from  Service 

276,  277 
at  Hanover  Court- House  252 

in  the  Peninsula 250 

Porter,  William  D 169 


PAGE 

Postage  Stamps,  Confederate . .     78 
Potomac,  Army  of  the.  129,  244,  296 

Blockade  of  the 128 

Grand  Army  of  the. .  240 

Quiet  on  the 134 

Powder  Boat  at  Fort  Fisher. . . .  493 

Powell,  Lewis  Payne ....  543 

Prentiss, Gen.,  at  Shiloh  211,  212,  213 
Preston,    William,    Joins    Con- 
federates   118 

Price,  Sterling,  at  Corinth 215 

Invades  Missouri 425 

at  Holly  Springs 309 

at  Lexington 114 

at  Pea  Ridge 199 

Retreats  from  Springfield  197 

in   Springfield 121 

Prices  in  Richmond  in  1863 429 

in  1865....  516 

Prison  Camps 430 

Prisoners,  Attempts  to  Rescue.  431 

Treatment  of 429 

Pritchard,  Col., Captures  Davis,  552 
Privateers.     See  War  Ships. 
Privateers,  Confederate. 72,  140,  402 

Last  of  the 406 

Prizes,  Naval 143 

Proclamation,  Blockade 71 

Emancipation.. . 

318,  319 

by  Davis 72 

Protection 13,  15 

Pulaski,  Siege  of  Fort 192 

Quaker  Guns  at  Corinth 216 

at  Munson'sHill.   130 
at  Port  Hudson. .  345 

Raid,  John  Brown's 28 

Railway  Budding  in  Maryland.     67 

Rail\va3rs,  How  to  Destroy 415 

Rally  Round  the  Flag,  Boys. . .  337 

Rams 216 

Randolph,  John 17 

Rapidan  River 240 

Rappahannock  River 240 

Rathbone,  H.  R 542 

Raymond,  Battle  of 331 

Rebs,  Nickname 137 

Reconstruction 557 

Red  River  Expedition 420 

Reno,  Jesse  D,  Death  of 282 

at  Elizabeth  City 191 

at  New  Berne 188 

at  Roanoke 184 

Republican  Party  (old) 7 


INDEX. 


mi 


PAGE 

Republican  Party  (of  1856) 25 

Resaca,  Johnston  at 460 

Retreat  from  Gettysburg 366 

from  Mill  Spring 163 

fromShiloh 213 

Reynolds,  John  F.(  Death  of. . .  360 
Reynolds,   Joseph  J.,   in  West 

Virginia 126 

Rich  Mountain,  Battle  of 90 

Richmond,  Anxiety  in 251 

Bright  Sunday  in. ..  523 

Evacuation  of 524 

Newspapers  on  Get- 
tysburg   369 

Rejoicing  in 297 

the  Ways  to.... 240,  241 
Union  Troops  Enter  530 

Richmond,  Ky.,  Battle  of 308 

Riots,  Draft 322 

Rivers,  Virginia 240 

Roanoke  Island 147 

Expedition 184 

Rodgers,  John,  Captures  the  At- 
lanta   392 

Attacks  Fort  Darling-  250 
Rosecrans,  Wm.  S.,  at  Chatta- 
nooga   379 

at  Chickamauga 378 

at  Corinth ' 310 

Marches  against 

Bragg 375 

in  Missouri 425 

at  Murfreesboro.312,  314 

Succeeds  Bnell 311 

in  Western  Virginia. 

90,  126 
Rousseau,  L.  H.,  Raid  from  De- 
catur   462 

Rowan,  Capt.,  at  New  Berne. ..  188 
Ruitin,  Edmund 56 

Sabine  Cross  Roads,  Battle  of. .   422 
Salkehatchie  River,  Crossing  the  497 

Sanitary  Commission 80 

Santa  Rosa  Island,  Attack  on. . .   149 

Savage's  Station,  Battle  of 267 

Savannah  as  a  Christmas  Gift. .   491 

Evacuated 490 

Privateer 140 

St.  Augustine  Occupied 196 

St.  Louis,  Secession  Troubles  in 

74,  75 

Scalps,  Indian 200 

Schoepf.Albin, in  Kentucky,  160,  162 
Schofield.J.  M.,  in  Atlanta  Cam- 
paign   459 


PAGE 

Schofield.  J.  M.,  at  Franklin. . .  478 

atGoldsboro 496 

at  Nashville 480 

at*  Wilmington 495 

Scott,  Dred 26 

Scott,  Winfield 43,  92,  138 

Scouting  in  West  Virginia 127 

Secesh,  Nickname 137 

Secession  Act,  Soldiers  Repeal  a  487 

of  Arkansas 73 

Beginning  of 10 

Bonnets 38 

Cockades 38,  40 

Hall,  Charleston 36 

of  North  Carolina 73 

of  South  Carolina. ...     36 

of  Tenuessee 73 

Threatened 15 

of  Virginia 64 

Secessionists  in  Washington. ...     80 

Secessionville,  Battle  of 196 

Secret  Service,  The 320 

Sedgwick,  John,  at  Chancellors- 

ville 350,  352 

Death  of 438,  439 

at  Fair  Oaks 257 

Pursues    Lee    after 

Gettysburg 367 

in  the  Wilderness. . .  435 

Sedition  Law 8,  10 

Selma,  Capture  of 509 

Semmes,  Raphael,  in  the  Alaba- 
ma  403 

in  the  Sumter 143 

Seven  Days'  Fight 264 

Seven  Pines,  Battle  of 257,  258 

Seward,  William  IT 52,  54 

Attempt  to  Assassinate.   543 

Joke  of 159 

Meets  Confederate  Com- 
missioners   515 

Seymour,  Horatio,  Thanks  to..  357 
Seymour,  Truman,  in  Florida..  400 

Sharpsburg,  Battle  of 284,  287 

Sharpshooters,  Berge's 173 

at  Fredericksburg  293 

at  Yorktown 247 

Shaw,  Robert  G.,  at  Fort  Wag- 
ner   395 

Shenandoah  Valley  Laid  Waste 
by  Sheri- 
dan   451 

Its     Impor- 
tance. ...     78 
Operations 
in 443 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Sherman,  Wm.  T.,  at  Atlanta..  465 
at  Chattanooga.  ..380,  383 

at  Columbia 500 

in  Danger 415 

Gets    News   of  Lin- 
coln's Death 545 

at  Jackson 331 

and  Johnston 458 

in  Kentucky 118 

at  Knoxville 385 

and  Lincoln 505 

Major-General 467 

Marches  from  Atlanta  481 
Marches  from  Savan- 
nah   496 

at  Meridian 415 

and  the  Negro 483 

in  New  Orleans 419 

at  Shiloh 210,  212 

Succeeds  Grant  in  the 

West 434 

and  the  Tunnel 472 

in  "Western  Tennessee  306 

Visits  Grant 505 

at  Vicksburg,325,  330,  333 
Interview  with  John- 
ston    546 

Sherman,  T.  W.,  at  Hilton  Head  152 
Sheridan,   Philip   H.,  at  Appo- 
mattox   537 

at  Chattanooga 383 

at  Chickamauira 378 

at  Cold  Harbor 445 

at  Five  Forks....  519,  520 

at  Murfreesboro 313 

Pursues  Lee 534 

Raid  to  Lynchburg. .  518 

Ride 452 

Rides  behind  Lee.  . ..  443 
in  the  Shenandoah 

Valley 451 

Shields   Defeated  at  Port    Re- 
public      255 

Shiloh.  Battle  of 209 

Ship  Island 218 

Ship,  Masts  of  a 409 

Ships.     See  War  Ships. 

Shreveport 420 

Sic  Semper  Tyrannis 542 

Sickles,  Daniel,  at  Gettysburg..   362 

Shoes,  Home-made 301 

Wooden 301 

Sigel,  Franz,  at  Carthage.  .105,   106 

with  Fremont 119 

atPeaRidee 198 

at  Second  Bull  Run 274 


PAGE 

Sigel,  Franz,  at  Wilson's  Creek  109 

Signalling ". 469 

at  Savanuah 490 

Skedaddle 136 

Slang,  Soldiers' 136 

Slave  Trade 5 

Reopening  of. ...  .  27 

Slavery  and  the  Confederacy.. .  315 

in  the  Colonies 3 

and  Emancipation 315 

Extension  of 19 

Feeling  against 17 

Feeling  in  Favor  of . . .  19 
First   Blow   against   in 

the  War 86 

in  North  and  South 17 

in  the  Political  Parties.  21 

Question 11 

in  the  States 18,  19 

in  Texas 20 

Slaves  in  Virginia,  First 86 

Follow  Sherman 416 

Slemmer,  Adam 48 

Slidell,  John 156,  159 

Sling  Carts 193 

Slocum,  H.  W 481 

Smith,  A.  J.,  Defeated  by  For- 
rest   419 

in  Louisiana 420 

at  Mobile 511 

at  Nashville 479 

in  Red  River  Expedition 

420,  423 

Smith,  Caleb  B 53 

Smith,  C.  F.,  Death  of 207 

at  Fort  Doneison 175 

Threatens  Columbus. . ..  123 

Smith,  E.  Kirby,  at  Bull  Run..  98 

at  Richmond,  Ky 308 

in  Texas 421 

Surrender  of 549 

Smith,  G.  W.,  at  Fair  Oaks. ...  257 
Smith,  Joseph  B..  Death  of  233,  239 

Smith,  W.  F.,  at  Cold  Harbor  445 

at  Petersburg 447 

Smith,  W.  S.,  Defeat  of... 416,  417 

Snicker's  Ferry,  Fight  at 450 

Society,  Anti-Slavery 18 

Societies,  Soldiers'  Aid 80 

Soldiers,  Colored 320,  430,  531 

Last  Review  of 555 

Number  of  Confeder- 
ate   556 

Number  of  Union. . . .  554 

South  Anna  River 240 

South  Carolina,  Destruction  in.  498 


INDEX. 


589 


PAGE 

South  Carolina  and    Lincoln's 

Election 33 

for      Nullifica- 
tion    14 

Ratines  Consti- 
tution    6 

Secession  of. . .  36 
Senators,    Res- 
ignation of. .  35 

Slavery  in 17 

State  Rights  in  16 

for  the  Union..  3 

South  Mills,  Battle  of 192 

South  Mountain,  Battles  of. 281,  2S2 

Sovereignty,  Popular 23 

Squatter 23 

State 6 

Spanish  Fort,  Capture  of 511 

Spencer  Carbine 509 

Spies  and  Informers 320 

Spoons,  Butler  and 228 

Spottsylvania,  Battle  at 437 

Springfield,  Mo 106,  110 

Squatter  Sovereignty 23 

Stamps,  Confederate  Postage. . .  78 

Stanton,  Edwin  M 241 

His  Ability 555 

Insults  Gen.  Sherman.  548 

Opposes  McClellan 242 

Order   of   Congratula- 
tion   540 

in  Savannah 492 

Star-Spangled  Banner,  Farewell 

to  the 523 

Star  of  the  West 43 

Stars  and  Bars 53 

State  Rights 6,  14 

States,  Free  and  Slave 11,  27 

New 11,  21 

Thirteen  Original 1 

Thirteen,  Population  of     11 

Steadman,  Gen. ,  at  Nashville . .  479 

Steele,  F.,  in  Arkansas 425 

at  Mobile 511 

Stephens,  Alexander  H.  .45,  47,  515 

Stewart,  Geo.  H.,  Captured 440 

Stone,    Charles    P.,    at    Ball's 

Bluff 131 

Stone  River,  Battle  of 313 

Stoueman,     George,     Captured 

near  Atlanta. . .  .  466 

at  Manassas 243 

in  the  Peninsula. .  249 
Raid    behind    Lee 

349,  353 

Takes  Salisbury. . .  507 


PAGE 

Stonewall,  Ironclad 406 

Stonewall  Jackson's  Way, Poem  566 
Stonewall  Jackson  of  the  West.  479 
Stories  and  Anecdotes : 
Adventure  of  Major  White. .  120 

All's  Well! 194 

Are  these  Yanks? 462,  463 

Ashby  and  his  Flag 255 

and  his  White   Horse 

255,  256 
Barbara    Frietchie    and     her 

Flag 278 

Bible  Lost  at  Bull  Run 303 

Big  Nigger,  Come  Down!. .  ..  247 

Blind  Joe  Parsons 288 

Boy  Sharpshooter 174 

Brave  Boy  at  Fort  Henry 169 

Brave  Engineer 461 

Buell  and  Grant 213 

Calibre  54 334 

Cheatham's  Escape 124 

Commodore      Foote      as      a 

Preacher 171 

Come  Back,  Little  Mac 291 

Contraband  and  Newspaper. .  196 

Death  of  Sedgwick 438 

Dis  Nigger   Can't   Sleep  dis 

Night. 483 

Drawing  Potatoes 136 

Duplicate  Tunnel 472 

Eddy  Lee,  the  Drummer  Boy  111 

Fairfax  and  Miss  Slidell 157 

Farragut  in  the  Shrouds. 409,  410 

Fire  in  the  Mountains 164 

Fort  McAllister  is  Taken 490 

Good-by,  Sammy ! 288 

Good  Union  Man 331 

Grant  and  Sherman 305 

Grierson's    Cavalry,    Adven- 
tures of 329 

Hancock  and  Stewart 440 

Hard  Tack,  Ancient 135 

Here's  your  Mule 384 

Heroine  of  New  Berne 190 

Hold,  Bill!  that's  Father 214 

Hold  the  Fort 469 

Hold  on,  Mars'  Yankee! 196 

Hotel  de  Vieksburg 338 

How  are  yees,  byes? 259 

Howard  and  Kearny 258 

Hurrah  for  Jeff  Davis ! 180 

I  can't  Make  Horses 349 

I'm  a  Bold  Sojer  Boy 288 

I'm  on  de  Lord's  Side,  Massa.  346 

Indian  Scalps 200 

J:  fferson  Davis's  Book 332 


590 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Stories  and  Anecdotes: 
Jefferson  Davis  and  the  Wo- 
man's Clothes 552 

Jenny  Wade 369 

Joe's  Dead 239 

John  Davis  and  the  Powder 

Keg 187 

Johnny  Clem  and  the  Confed- 

erateTlolonel 378 

Jus'  Look  at  his  Hoss. . .  .502,  503 

Lee  in  the  Wilderness 436 

Lieutenant  Paine   and  Lieu- 
tenant Henry 353 

Lieutenant  AVorden  and   the 

Merrimac 239 

Lincoln's  Vow 319 

McCall  and  the  Sentry 266 

Meade's  Promotion 357 

Men  Eighteen  Feet  High 396 

Milk  or" Whisky 299 

Morgan's  Great  Paid 374 

Morgan,  J.  H,  Stories  of..  181,  183 
Mosby  Captures  Stoughton.  .   347 

My  Mother!  My  Mother! 303 

No  Ammunition  Left 116 

Old  Burnemside's  Boys 189 

Old  John  Burns 368 

Old  Seth  and  his  Secesh  Gun.  247 

Politic  Contraband 114 

Powder  Boy,  Brave 221 

Prince  de  Joinville  and  Sentry  245 

Rats,  to  your  Holes! 338 

Rotten  Balls 189,  190 

Sam  Watt 399 

Schnapps!  Schnapps! 165 

Schpike  dem  Guns! 214 

Scout  and  Torpedoes 167 

Sherman's  Cotton  Money. . . .  306 
Starving  on  Roast  Turkey .    .  385 
Stonewall  Jackson's  Commis- 
sary   304 

Stonewall    Jackson    and  the 

Farmer 262 

Stonewall  Jackson's  Prayers.  254 

Stuart  and  Pope's  Coat 273 

Stuart's    Ride    around    Mc- 

Clellan 261 

Taking  a  Rest 330 

The  Atlanta's  Torpedo 393 

The  Boys  have  got  the  Money.  149 

The  Two  Dogs 159 

The  Vicksburg  Citizen 339 

The  Yankees  will  Cotch  Us. .  163 
Wanted,  A  Large  Chicken. . .   299 
We  shall  Sleep  in  the  Enemy's 
Camp 209,  212 


PAGE 

Stories  and  Anecdotes: 

Whittlers,  Regiment  of 194 

Wright,  Death  of  Colonel... .  124 

Zagonyi's  Charge 120 

Straight,  A.  D.,  Raid  of 373 

Stringham,  Silas  H 140,  146 

Stuart,  J.  E.  B.,  Captures  Pope's 

Baggage 273 

in  Chambersburg 289 

at  Chancellorsville 352 

Death  of 444 

Defeated    near    Dranes- 

ville 138 

Early  Life  of 260 

at  Harper's  Ferry 79 

in  Penns3'lvania 359 

Reviews  Cavalry 356 

Ride  around  McClellan..  261 
in  Shenandoah  Valley. .     79 
Takes  Manassas  Junction  273 
Sturgis,  Gen.,  Defeated  by  For- 
rest  419 

at  Lexington 115 

at  Wilson's  Creek 110 

Sugar  Burning 224 

Sugar  Creek,  Battle  of 197 

Sumner,  Charles 25 

Sumner,  E.  V.,  at  Antietam..285,  288 

at  Fair  Oaks 257 

at  Fredericksburg 296 

in  the  Peninsula 242 

at  Williamsburg 249 

Sumter,  Fort,  Attack  on 56 

Attempt  to  Reinforce. .     54 

Barracks  on  Fire 59,  60 

Description  of 38 

Hoisting  the  Flag  over 

41,  500,  502 

Opens  Fire  58 

Relief  Fleet  off 58 

Removal  to 40 

Surrender  Demanded. .     55 

Surrender  of 61 

Sutlers 299 

Swamp  Angel,  The 396 

Swayne,  Wager,  Wounded. . . .  497 

Tappan,  Arthur 18 

Tariff  of  1828 13 

of  1832 15 

Compromise 16 

Question 12 

Tatnall,  Josiah 152,  250 

Taylor,  Dick 345,  421,  508 

Taylor,  Zachary 22 

Tecumseh,  Sinking  of  the 410 


INDEX. 


591 


PAGE 

Telegraph  in  the  War 517 

Tennessee,  Fight  with  the.  .411,  412 
Tennessee,  Grand  Army  of  the.  215 
Tennessee  River,  Opening  of  the  171 

Tennessee,  Secession  of 73 

Territories 11 

Terry,  Alfred  II.,  at  Fort  Fisher  494 

at  Goldsboro 49(5 

Texas,  Admission  of 20 

Secession  of 44 

Text,  A  Useless 99 

Thatcher,  Admiral,  at  Mobile..  508 
Thomas,    Geo.   H.,    in  Atlanta 

Campaign 459 

in  Chattanooga  Cam- 
paign   375 

at  Chickamauga 378 

at  Corinth 215 

in  Kentucky .  161 

at  Murfreesboro 313 

at  Nashville  479 

Succeeds  Rosecrans. .  379 

Thomas's  Circus ...  459 

Thompson,  Fort,  Capture  of. .  .   201 

Thompson,  Jeff 121,  564 

Tilghman,  Lloyd,  Death  of . . . .  332 
at  Fort  Henry..  166,  168 
Toasts,     Jackson's     and     Cal- 
houn's      15 

Torpedo,  The  Atlanta's 393 

Torpedoes  at  Charleston 390 

at  Fort  Henry..  167,  169 

in  the  Potomac 129 

Sherman's    Remedy 

for 489 

at  Yorktown 248 

Trent,  British  Steamer 157 

Trunk,  Mary's 81 

Travellers'  Repose,  Fight  at. ...  128 

Turner's  Gap,  Battle  of 282 

Twiggs,  Surrender  of  General..  48 
Tyler,  John 20,     48 

Unconditional  Surrender  Grant.  178 

Union  and  Constitution 5 

First 4 

It  must  be  Preserved. .  .15, 16 

Perpetuity  of  the 559 

Petitions  for  Dissolution 

of 19 

United  States,  Weakness  under 
Confederation 4 

Van  Dorn  at  Corinth 215,  310 

Death  of 373 

at  Franklin 372,  373 


PAGE 

Van  Dorn  at  Holly  Springs.. 309,  325 

Earl,  at  Pea  Ridge.. .  198 

Varnna,  Sinking  of  the 221 

Vicksburg 323,  326 

Citizen,  The 339 

Farragut  at 229 

Hotel     de,     Bill    of 

Fare 338 

Prices 337 

Siege  of 335 

Surrender  of 336 

Virginia,  Army  of 271 

in  the  Confederacy. . .  78 

Desolation  of 516 

The  March  into.. 83 

Resolutions 9 

Secession  of 64 

Volunteers,  First  Call  for . .  63 

for  Washington.. .'.  79 
Five           Hundred 

Thousand  more.  92 
and  Seamen  Called 

for 72 

Wade,  Jenny,  at  Gettysburg. ..  369 
Wadsworth,  Gen.,  Death  of....  437 
Wagner,  Assault  on  Fort..  395,  397 
Walker,   Secretary,  his  Predic- 
tion   63 

Wallace,  Lewis,  at  Fort  Douel- 

son 175,  177 

at  Fort  Henry 173 

at  Memphis '. 217 

at  Monocacy  River. . .  448 

at  Shiloh 212 

Wallace,  W.  H.  L.,  at  Shiloh. .  211 

War  of  1812 10 

War,    Causes    and    Results  of 

the 557 

War  Vessels — Confederate: 

Alabama 403 

Albemarle.... 400 

Arkansas 229 

Atlanta ; 392 

Beaufort 233 

Beauregard 144 

Chicora 389 

Chickamauga 406 

Cotton  Plant 401 

Florida 405 

Gaines ,  •  •  •  •  410 

General  Beauregard. .......  217 

General  Bragg 217 

General  Lovell 217 

General  Price 217 

Georgia 406 


592 


INDEX. 


War  Vessels — Confederate : 

Jamestown 233 

Jeff  Thompson 217 

Jefferson  Davis 144 

Lady  Davis 140 

Little  Rebel 217 

Louisiana 219,  221,  227,  231 

McRee 216 

Manassas..  150,  219,  221,  223,  231 

Merrimac 231 

Mississippi 224,  231 

Morgan 410 

Nashville 144,  388 

Olustee 406 

Palmetto  State 389 

Patrick  Henry 233,  526 

Petrel  140,  142 

Raleigh 233 

Richmond 526 

Savannah 140 

Selma 410 

Shenandoah 406 

Stonewall 406 

Sumter 143,  216 

Tallahassee 406 

Teazer 233 

Tennessee 408 

Van  Dora 217 

Virginia 231 

Virginia  (2) 526 

War  Vessels — Union: 

Aroostook 250 

Benton 216 

Bombshell 400 

Brooklyn 223,   408 

Cairo 231 

Carondelet.  .166,  176,  204,  229,  231 

Catskill 390 

Cayuga 220,  2'29 

Chickasaw 408 

Cincinnati 166,  216,  231 

Conestoga 166,  176 

Congress 232 

Cumberland    146,  232 

Eastport 423 

Ericsson 388 

Essex 166,  169,  229 

Fort  Hiudman 424 

Galena 250,  251,  408 

Harriet  Lane 146 

Hartford.. 219,  222,  229,  343,  408 

Itasca.* 223,  408 

Kearsarge 403 

Kennebec 223,  408 

Keokuk 390,  391 

Keystone  State 389 


PAGE 

War  Vessels — Union: 

Lackawanna 408 

Lexingtoii 166,  176,  211,  424 

Louisville 176,  231 

Manhattan 408 

Mercedita 389 

Metacomet 408,  511 

Minnesota 146,  232,  234,  237 

Mississippi 221,  223 

Monitor 234,  250,  387 

Monongahela 408 

Montauk 144,  388,  390 

Montgomery 149 

Monticello 146 

Mound  City 216,  231 

Nahant 388,  390 

Nantucket 390 

Naugatuck 250 

Neosho 424 

New  Ironsides 390,  391 

Niagara 149 

Octorara 408 

Oneida 221,  408 

Osage 423,  511 

Ossipee  408 

Passaic 387,  390 

Patapsco ..388,  390 

Pawnee 129,  146 

Pensacola 221 

Perry '  ...  141 

Pittsburg 176,  205,  231 

Port  Royal 250,  408 

Portsmouth 221 

Queen  of  the  West 229 

Richmond 149,  223,  408 

Roanoke 232,  234 

St.  Lawrence 142,  232,  234 

St.  Louis  166,  176,  231 

San  Jacinto 157 

Sassacus 401 

Seminole 408 

Southrield 401 

Susquehanna 146 

Sumter  229 

Tecumseh 408 

Tuscarora 144 

Tyler 166,  211,  229 

Varuna 221 

Wabash 146,  153 

Wachusett 405 

Weehawken....390,  391,  392,  398 

Winnebago 408 

Winona 223 

Warren,  G.  K.,  at  Gettysburg..  362 

at  Petersburg 456 

at  Spottsylvania 437 


INDEX. 


593 


PAGE 

Warren,  G.  K.,  in  the  Wilderness  435 

Warrior,  British  Iron  clad 158 

Washington,  Aqueduct  Bridge 

at 84 

Attacked  by  Ear- 
ly  449 

Beginning  of  De- 
fences of 84 

a  Camp 79 

Fortifications  of. .  130 
Grand  Review  in.  555 
Long  Bridge  at. . .  83 
Politicians,  Fears 

of 275 

Secessionists  in..     80 

Threatened 63,  65 

Washington  Artillery  of  New 

Orleans 296 

Washington,  George 4,  7,  8 

Home  of 294 

Marriage  of 262 

Washington,  John  A.,  Death  of  128 

Webster,  Brave  Miss 82 

Webster,  Daniel 14,  23 

Weitzel,  Godfrey,  Enters  Rich- 
mond  530,  532 

at  Fort  Fisher 493 

Welles,  Gideon 53,  140,  555 

Wessells,  Henry  W.,  at  Plym- 
outh  400 

West  Virginia 65 

Wheeler,    Gen.,    Attacks  Fort 

Donelson 372 

in  South  Carolina. . .  496 

Whio-  Party 20,  24 

Whistling  Dick 344 

White  House,  Va 262 

White  House,  Washington,  Sol- 
diers in 65 

White,  Major,  Adventure  of . . .   120 

Wilderness,  The 350 

Battles  of  the 435 


PAGE 

Wilderness,  Grant  in  the 435 

Wilkes,  Charles,  Takes  Mason 

and  Slidell 156 

Williams,  A.  S 481 

Williamsburg,  Battle  of 249 

Wilmington,  Taking  of 495 

Wilmot  Proviso 21 

Wilson,  James  H.,  at  Nashville.  480 
Raid  in  Alabama.....  508 

Wilson's  Creek,  Battle  of 108 

Wilson's  Zouaves 148 

Winslow,   John  A.,    Sinks  the 

Alabama 403 

Winter  Quarters 371 

Winthrop,  Theodore,  Death  of 

88,  89 

Wise,  Henry  A 30,  126,  185 

Woodford,      Stewart     L.,     in 

Charleston 501 

Wood-ticks 461 

Woman  Order,  Butler's 227 

Wool,    John    E.,    at    Fortress 

Monroe 145,  250 

Worden,  John  L.,  on  the  Moni- 
tor  236,  238 

Destroys  the  Nashville.  388 

Wright,  H.  G 195 

Succeeds  Sedgwick. . .  439 
Wright,  John  V.,  Death  of . . . .  124 
Wyndham,  Percy 256 

Yankee  Cheese-box 235,  237 

Yanks,  Nickname 137 

Yellow  Tavern,  Fight  at 444 

Yorktown,  Siege  of 246 

Zaii'onyi's  Charge 119 

Zo'llicoffer,  Felix  K.,  Death  of..  163 
in  Kentucky....  117,  160 

Zouaves,  Hawkins' 186 

New  York  Fire 85 

Wilson's 148 


.     ..     . 


